Motorway

This photographic project keeps returning to a motorway site in rural Bavaria. It observes and documents the somehow fascinating, somehow scary landscape changes coming with it. Thinking about climate change, floor sealant, individual traffic, economy.

A few years ago, I visited Prenzing for the first time. A small village in Bavaria, situated in a predominantly agricultural region. Characterized mainly by corn cultivation, pig farming, and some of gravel pits and ponds on one hand. On the other hand the spa town of Bad Füssing plays an important role in the region’s tourism.

Here, the Federal Republic of Germany is building a motorway. Eventually, it is intended to connect the Bavarian capital of Munich with Passau. Of the total 150 kilometres, 109 kilometres are now open to traffic, 12 kilometres are under construction, and the remainder are still in the planning stage.

It takes about 30 meters in width to build a motorway with two lanes in each direction and a hard shoulder.

The construction site is therefore quite dominant in the region. Familiar routes disappear, new ones emerge. Bridges and detours are built.

Slowly but inexorably, the construction crews advance, completing the motorway kilometre by kilometre. Meanwhile, people use the not yet opened routes as foot and bike paths.

A photographic project that keeps returning and observes, but also asks questions.