co-conceived by Dominique Hurth
Permanent artistic intervention at the Mahn‑ und Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück
The exhibition focuses on the following themes: the women’s background; the power and violence relationships that prevailed at the camp; the career opportunities of female guards; and the site of Ravensbrück as a principal training and recruitment center for female guards. In addition, it addresses the victims’ attempts of seeking justice as well as the “silence that speaks volumes” on the part of their perpetrators. Last but not least, the fascinating appeal of the figure of the ‘SS female guard’ in popular culture is also put up for discussion.
Under the title “Pictures, Voices, and Clichés”, five artists have developed interventions in cooperation with the exhibition project. They approach the topic of the SS female guard from a perspective relevant to the present day. The traces of violence in architectural relics and landscapes, the dichotomy of home and crime scene, the role of music within the context of forced labour, the ‘brutal cosiness’ of the interiors of the guards’ accommodation, the educational methods within the Nazi Volksgemeinschaft (‘people’s community’) – these are all focal points of the artistic strategies.
The artistic contributions of Marianna Christofides, Arnold Dreyblatt, Moritz Fehr, Dominique Hurth and Susanne Kriemann are embedded within the historical exhibition.