Berlin is known for a progressive attitude to nudity, from its debauched nightclubs to the naked sunbathing that takes place in parks and at the city's numerous lakes. But things are changing. Last year, one of its most popular saunas, Verbali spa, buckled under tourist pressure and mandated bathrobes in many areas.
It's these shifting attitudes that performance artist and activist Mischa Badasyan and his partner, photographer Abdulsalam Ajaj, are putting to the test with their work Weil Ich Dich Liebe (Because I Love You), which captures ordinary citizens of various ages and sizes undressed inside 16 of the city's metro stations. In one photo, a row of naked men curves around the edge of an empty subway platform, framed between gleaming white columns and a filthy, gravel railway line. What's striking is how the series offers Berliners the chance to slow down and see what goes unnoticed in the banality of getting from one place to the next – I hadn't noticed the magenta railings of Prinzenstrasse, until the image of a lone, hirsute-backed, bald-pated man made this detail stand out.
"When I moved [here], each station being different caught my eye: they're amazing," says Ajaj, who came to Berlin from Damascus. After trying for six months to gain permission from the city to shoot their series, and failing, the artists put out a call for participants and decided to work illegally in the early mornings – usually before the trains began running – with whoever showed up. The pair exhibited their photos at L'Art pour Elkaar festival in the Dutch city of Maastricht earlier this month and plan to hang posters of the images around the German capital.
"We've lost the feeling of belonging to the city," says Russian-born Badasyan, who thinks unfamiliar experiences can forge connections between people and their surroundings. "But now, when people from these interventions return to the stations we've shot at, they feel: ‘This is home.'" Quelling bodily anxiety is another aim of the project: "A trans volunteer said it was the first time he'd felt comfortable with his body."
