Jan von Holleben has constructed a kosmos of six planets with little more than a box of props, a team of willing humans, some clippings from the garden, and his camera. Click, click, click and strange things happen, right beforethe camera, with no digital manipulation: Ghosts flash through the Berlin cityscape. Plants cast shadows onthe sky. Many places gather in the same place at once. Monsters imitate flowers (or is it the other way around? ) .
Each planet presents an optical riddle. The only clues are visual. No answers are provided. This is a kosmos for intrepid discoverers.
I once ruled the worlds. Not just one, but many. I ruled them with mirrors and lenses. I ruled them with light and shadow and time. Sometimes I ruled with a trick of the eye. Through my camera, an entire kosmos took shape, and each world within it seemed to operate by a certain unfamiliar logic.
— Jan von Holleben
