Erinnerungskultur | Wartist

Thomas Geve: “There are No Children Here” (Cologne)

From 9 May to 3 August 2014, the NS-Dokumentationszentrum Köln (Nationalsocialism Documentation Centre Cologne, NSDOK) presents the special exhibition “Es gibt hier keine Kinder” – Auschwitz, Groß-Rosen, Buchenwald (“There are no children here”). After his liberation from KZ Buchenwald, Thomas Geve, then 15 years of age, drew his memories of life in concentration camps. Proximity to death and the constant subjection to the guards are central to the documentary drawings; equally, they are a testimony of a youth’s will to survive. The NSDOK exhibition shows 75 of his drawings that since 1985 are part of the Yad Vashem collections in Jerusalem

Thomas Geve: „Gefahren in Auschwitz“, 1945 (© Yad Vashem)

On our own matters: World War I Centenary in “Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte”

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Wounds of the World – Magnum Photos (Osnabrück)

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Wartist Presents: „Landscapes & Memory“ – Photos by Jo Röttger, Bavarian Army Museum (Ingolstadt)

On 28 May 2013, the exhibition „Landscapes & Memory“ by Hamburg-based photographer Jo Röttger will open at Bayerisches Armeemuseum (Bavarian Army Museum) in Ingolstadt. In 27 large-format photos with their picture language that reminds of romanticism, Röttger approaches landscapes and identity while addressing desire and alienation as well as the ongoing war in Afghanistan. A bilingual catalogue will be published on the occasion of the exhibition, curated by Martin Bayer (Wartist).

Concert: Revered – Banned – Drowned (Berlin)

On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition “verfemt, verfolgt – vergessen? Kunst und Künstler im Nationalsozialismus”¹ the chamber symphonic orchestra Kammersymphonie Berlin, conducted by Jürgen Bruns, will play the concert Verehrt – verfemt – versunken² at Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church), Berlin’s oldest church. The concert consists of worky by Franz Schreker, Gideon Klein, Erich Zeisl, Egon Wellesz and Pavel Haas. They ranked as the most revered composers of their times, but due to Nazi persecution and murder, they vanished into oblivion. Both the concert and the exhibition are part of the theme year “Diversity Destroyed”.

banned, persecuted – forgotten? Art and Artists under National Socialism ↩
revered – banned – drowned ↩

banned, persecuted – forgotten? Art and Artists under National Socialism (Berlin)

From 16 March until 28 July 2013, Stadtmuseum Berlin presents the exhibition “verfemt, verfolgt – vergessen? Kunst und Künstler im Nationalsozialismus”¹ with various works from the impressive Collection Gerhard Schneider at its location Emphraim-Palais. On the occasion of the theme year “Diversity Destroyed” on the Nazi’s takeover 100 years ago, the Stadtmuseum Berlin thus remembers the methodic defamation of modern art, up to destruction of artworks and lives. The exhibition is dedicated to all artists who had been banned, persecuted or even murdered, and whose works and lives have been nearly forgotten. It is therefore even more necessary to remember their suffering, but not the least their lives and works, to snatch them from oblivion.

Georg Netzband: Der Sieger, 1939 (Dr. Gerhard Schneider, VG Bild-Kunst 2011)

banned, persecuted – forgotten? Art and Artists under National Socialism ↩

Marissa Roth: One Person Crying – Women and War (Berlin)

Sara Duvall mit einem Foto ihres Sohnes Aaron Reed, getötet im Irak, Chillicothe, Ohio 2005 (© Marissa Roth)

From 8 March until 3 April 2013, Berlin-based Willy-Brandt-Haus presents the exhibition One Person Crying: Women and War with photos by Marissa Roth. Since 1984, the Pulitzer Prize laureate (born in 1957 in Los Angeles) is dealing with this issue: back then, she travelled to the Yugoslav homeland of her Jewish grandparents who had been murdered in 1942 by Hungarian Fascists. In 1988, she was assigned by Los Angeles Times to portray Afghan women refugees. The subject remained crucial for her work: One Person Crying: Women and War addresses the effects of war on women within their respective societies. Continue reading

Robert M. Edsel: Monuments Men (lecture, Berlin/Potsdam)

On 20 and 21 March 2013, Robert M. Edsel presents his book “The Monuments Men” and its thrilling background story in lectures with subsequent talks in Berlin and Potsdam. During the Second World War, the Nazis organised the “greatest theft in history” and stole countless art works from the occupied territories in Europe. The allied special unit from the “Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Program” searched for these art treasures. The author Robert M. Edsel is dealing intensively with this art theft and in 2007, he founded the “Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art”. His book “The Monuments Men” (2009) has already been translated into 19 languages, is recently available in German and is the background for the homonymous film directed by George Clooney with Clooney himself, Cate Blanchett, Daniel Craig, Matt Damon, Jean Dujardin and John Goodman that will be made this year.

Continue reading “Robert M. Edsel: Monuments Men (lecture, Berlin/Potsdam)”

Martin Bayer: grounded

Photographer Martin Bayer (educated at Lette-Verein Berlin) addresses in his series grounded¹ of decommissioned military aircraft the perception of history and war, but also the aestheticisation of weapons. Detached from their historic context, the planes appear as objects or even sculptural. Neither the country of provenance, nor their operating period are discernible: was it an “attacker” or a “defender”, regarding our own classifications? Each war produces history and its own myths – grounded puts them in the background, making room for the viewers’ own associations.

grounded #4, C-print on alu-dibond, 50x75 cm (© 2012 Martin Bayer)

crashed, having a grounding (aircraft, pilot), fixed, earthed, but also sensible, justified ↩

Bryan Adams: Exposed (Dusseldorf)

Private Karl Hinett (© 2011 Bryan Adams)

From 2 February until 22 May 2013, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf presents the photo exhibition Exposed with works by Bryan Adams, mostly known as musician. Many of the some 150 prints shown are glamour portraits of actors and fellow musicians. As maximum disruption to all those immaculate stars, Adams’s portraits of British war invalids are shown, too: a new series of impressive portraits of humans marked by war. Protheses replace the former limbs, monstrous scars refer to pain and injuries. According to Adams, these pictures are his way “to show the legacy of war”.