Nachhall 8. Mai
Installation
Rudolph-Jungck Park, Berlin
- 2025
Nachhall 8. Mai (Reverberation 8th May) is a collaborative installation with historian Dora Busch for the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. The project was made in cooperation with Museum Lichtenberg and Kulturprojekte Berlin, and was included in the program of Museum Karlshorst.
The installation features three triangular sun sails fixed to trees with archival photographs from Lichtenberg in May 1945 printed on them. Among the photographs is one taken by Russian photographer Valery Faminsky (held in the collection of Arthur Bondar) of Major of Medical Service S.L. Rogachevsky posing next to graffiti on a wall at Bahnhof Lichtenberg with a common inscription from the time: ‘Berlin bleibt Deutsch!’ (Berlin stays German!). Under each sun sail hangs a loudspeaker playing sections of interviews conducted with people on the streets of Lichtenberg in April 2025, as well as a blanket for visitors to lie down on and listen. The unnamed amplified voices speak of their connections to 8th May, sharing personal insights and political views on the significance and implications of this one day. Interspersed with the interviews are recordings of the sounds of instruments held in the archive of Museum Karlshorst, including an artillery shell used as a dinner bell for Soviet troops barracked in Berlin and a balalaika with the inscription (in Russian) ‘May this balalaika only play marches of peace’ painted on the front.
A risograph-printed booklet expanding upon our research accompanies the installation. The booklet offers insights into how the capitulation in Karlshorst and the end of the Second World War in Europe have been conceptualised and communicated through local museum exhibitions over the past eighty years. It features interviews with historical witnesses in 2001 and archived exhibition materials from Museum Lichtenberg, for example, from the fortieth anniversary in 1985. Many witness accounts end with ‘never again’, a hope being questioned today from many directions. Indeed, the rise of far-right and fascist ideologies in Germany, as well as across Europe and America, today run counter to expectations eighty years ago that the capitulation of Germany would bring an end to Nazism. On the contrary, the existence of Neo-Nazi political groups and the increasing popularisation of nationalist symbols and views in Germany at present demonstrate the opposite; democracy and peace in Europe are as fragile now as they were in the last century.
By interweaving current perspectives on conflict, liberation, occupation, and political extremism with those from within local museum archives, this installation and accompanying booklet create a contemporary document on the end of the Second World War by shedding light on its resonance eighty years on.
Archival photography: © Museum Lichtenberg, © Arthur Bondar Collection
Archival musical instruments: © Museum Karlshorst
Installation:
- Materials: Polyester Sun Sails, Rope, Pegs, Caribinas, Loudspeakers, Blankets
- Dimensions (HxWxD): N/A