History is on every street corner: Monuments and memorial sites shape cities and public remembrance all over Europe. They are closely connected with the experiences from the past and are meant to keep certain memories alive. But are they truly ›set in stone‹ or does their meaning change over time?
This bilingual English-Russian workshop focused on the role and history of memorials in the cultures of remembrance all over Europe. The participants met experts working with memorials from the past and the present in Berlin: They focused also on those memorials which have been abandoned and demolished at various points in the past. These discarded memorials are part of the exhibition »Unveiled – Berlin and its Monuments« at the Zitadelle Berlin, which the participants visited. By exploring a memorial from this exhibition and one from the participants’ hometowns or region, they discovered the history behind these monuments, analysed their forms and designs, decoded their messages, placed them in their historical contexts and critically discussed their relation to and relevance for the present.
Isabel Sebeikat
Artist and pedagogue
Berlin, Germany
Benjamin Zuckschwerdt
Historian and museum educator
Berlin, Germany
Dina Argunova
Interpreter and translator for Russian, German and English
Berlin, Germany
Photo: © Körber-Stiftung/David Ausserhofer
Finally, the participants created their own message for the future in the shape of a memorial, which became part of exhibitions at the Zitadelle Spandau, Berlin. This workshop was implemented within the cooperation project between Körber-Stiftung and DVV International.
During the closing ceremony the participants presented the memorials they created and shared the ideas behind them with the Summit audience.
