Kenopsia

Harald A. Jahn,
Kenopsia. Urban Explorations and Lost Places in Vienna

Wien 2019

ISBN 978-3-85161-214-1


Text in German and English
244 pp., 390 colour figs., 29,7 x 21 cm; softcover


About the book:

Kenos – ancient Greek: empty, destitute
Opsis – ancient Greek: look, appearance, aspect
… Urban Slang for the uncanny atmosphere of a place which was once inhabited by people yet which is now abandoned and completely still – an empty factory building, a forgotten castle, a deserted town. Humans are absent from these spaces, they are only memories, distant shadows; the disintegrating buildings in their state of decay reveal themselves in their true beauty once more: like an aging ballerina who has retired from the stage but performs her former pirouttes one last time in all her glory.
In this very personal book, the author and photographer Harald A. Jahn guides us to the most interesting "Lost Places" in and around Vienna, unveiling that which is forgotten, lost, or unobserved. At the same time, he describes the history of the objects as well as his own experience of them; details of addresses and interviews supplement these expeditions to unknown places, whose secrets help shape the city.