to remember to forget, 2017

A performative, participatory, site specific installation, ink on paper, 4.60 x 0.65 m.

Before WWII the city of Kassel in German Hessen / Hessia region, was the base for all the important military-industrial sites, like the Fieseler aircraft factory and Henschel tank-making facilities. Railway and engine works were also based there. Between 1942-1945 the city was subjected to a bombing campain.

In 1942 a front view building plan of the Kassel Weinberg and Belle View was made by a state urban planning office, sizing 4.60m x 0.60m. In 1943 the British Royal Air Force bombed Kassel’s city centre, resulting in a lethal firestorm. After the end of the war, most of the buildings depicted in the plan made in 1942 were reconstructed, yet some no longer exist.

The design of the original building plan found in Stadtarchiv Kassel is re-constructed by 42 visitors of the Kunsttempel exhibition space dependent on the gallery visitors willingness to interact. Many thanks to the Stadtarchiv Kassel for supporting this project’s research and permitting the use of the original image and to all participants!

Orientation, organized and curated by Steffi Jüngling, Carola Ruf & Friedrich W. Block, Kunsttempel, Friedrich-Ebert-Str. 177, Kassel, Germany.

Stadtarchiv Kassel, photos by Lea Petrou.