Exhibition Cycle 100 Jahre erster Weltkrieg

Kriegsgeschichte-n

Starting with the opening on February 7th 2014 the whole project is supposed to be accompanyied by a series of exhibitions that will take place in the office and in the Lapidarium of the Alte Berliner Garnisonfriedhof as an ongoing process and a space for meeting, exchange, observation and commemoration. The visitors will be invited to leave their notes, impressions and experiences upon visiting the exhibition and the cemetery in written or any other form (drawing, photograph, etc.). These will be collected and put into a special archive. The curatorial reference of the ARE has been the project of 4. berlin biennale in 2006 curated by Maurizio Cattellan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subbotnik. At the 4. berlin biennale „of mice and men“ that analysed human condition, it was among others an audio installation by Susan Philipsz installed on the cemetery territory.This time referring to the human condition during the World War I a sound installation will be arranged for the interior of the cemetery office used as commemoration space. It is supposed to play in loop the digitalised sound recordings of the prosoners speaking their native language. The rocordings were made in the several military camps in Germany during the First World War. The recordings and the documents providing data on the indentities of the prisoners recorded have been kindly provided to us by the Lautarchiv of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Exact conditions on how, for which purposes the recordings were made or what happened to the prisoners afterwards are not known. It was supposedly the intention of the interrogaters who prepared and conducted the speaking - singing sessions with prisoners in the First World War and made the recordings in German camps to use them for the purposes of (among others) teaching of the Georgian language.

It is one of the aims of the exhibition and of the project to present to public and to discuss, as well as to allow the visitors to analyze and re-think history, to commemorate. If the installation helps to find out more about the prisoners - their further destiny and the details of their detention it would be all the better for all involved. These audio materials are unique and to our knowledge never presented in public before. The cycle of exhibitions curated by the ARE with the kind support of the Lautarchiv of the Humboldt University Berlin in cooperation with Förderverein Alte Berliner Garnisonfriedhof will be opened on Feb. 7, 2014.

We are very grateful to Dr. Britta Lange for letting us know about the existence of these recordings and documents in the HU Lautarchiv and to Sarah Grossert from the archive staff for the insightful conversation on the subject and the support.

ARE/Artistic Research Encounters

Opening: 7th February 2014 

19-21 pm

Duration 7.2.-23.4, 2014 

Kleine Rosenthalerstr. 3, Berlin

030 9789 38 97

Impressum:
ARE/Artistic Research encounters

Torstrasse 208, 10115,
 Berlin
030 9789 38 97

lilykalanda@yahoo.co.uk