SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Kern, in your new photocycle Germany seems like a huge village, we see nothing but meadows, forests and terraced. What's so exciting about the province?
Core: When I left Berlin, I needed landing strips. Places where I could settle myself and motives looking to be the landscape justice. My former professor Arno Fischer said: "You can not control random, but you can go often enough, until you experience the chance." But but time is needed – and money. Around as long as possible to stay in one place, I had to apply for scholarships. So I came up as to Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg.
Core: At first I actually looked there on the skyline. I thought I need this image. Then I turned around and looked behind me a field on the edge of a group of people got out of their cars. And I realized: this is it. Later, when I went through the photo contacts – I work similarly – was clear: I do not need the skyline. It's not about Frankfurt, but about the people and the question: What do because really, here in our country?
Core: The German history appears already, but often encrypted. In "Cologne" you can see the cathedral in the far background. In "Schwerin" I photographed the last standing statue of Lenin of the place. The historical component is found in the Subzeile, you have to look hard enough.
Core: The entire German history resonates forever, especially with my subject. In Tehran and Warsaw so I have explained in lectures, that I just about the last ten years has gone to. The merging of East and West And I stress that as an artist I look at my country, not as a historian.