DOMINIQUE HURTH, SUSANNE KRIEMANN

Galerie Bernau, Bernau near Berlin, DE

The duo exhibition by Dominique Hurth and Susanne Kriemann draws on the history of the region of the exhibition venue, particularly with regard to material biography, textile and industrial history and climate change. For years, both artists have been working on interrelated aspects of the past and present of the former women’s concentration camp Ravensbrück (Fürstenberg/Havel).
Dominique deals with female Nazi perpetrators and in particular with the figure of the female concentration camp guard by taking a closer look at the guards’ uniform. At the core of the new work is the textile production in Ravensbrück, which has hardly been researched so far – through the weaving itself, the history of forced labor and its capitalist structure and continuities are addressed.

Susanne is interested in the aspect of slow violence that leaves traumatic traces over the years. The concept of contamination is to be understood here as a symbolic burden. The artist transfers roof tiles, bricks and water pipes collected at the Ravensbrück memorial to the photographs by applying color pigments obtained from these historical materials. At the same time, Kriemann worked with forester Peter Linke to search for habitats of rare ant species, such as the red wood ant, the narrow-headed ant and other wood ants.

Traces and superimpositions of memory, dealing with National Socialism and a present shaped by climate change come together in this exhibition, in which archives, memory and material testimony are presented.