900 AND SOME 26 000 DAYS

 Motherland (Mother Russia), 27.9.2014, Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetry, St. Petersburg
Photo: Michaela Melián
PRESS RELEASE
900 AND SOME 26 000 DAYS
A GERMAN-RUSSIAN PROJECT ON THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD
October 15 – November 15, 2015
Press conference
October 15, 2015, 10 am
Lecture
October 15, 2015, 7 pm
Symposium
October 16, 2015, 1–6 pm
Opening of the exhibition
October 16, 2015, 7 pm
Kunstverein in Hamburg
Klosterwall 23
20095 Hamburg
T +49 40 322158
F+49 40 322159
[email protected]
www.kunstverein.de
900 AND SOME 26 000 DAYS
A GERMAN-RUSSIAN PROJECT ON THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD
October 15 – November 15, 2015
How do we go about commemorating an inconceivable crime? How and in what form can past events be
visualized and transformed? As the cultural theorist, Aleida Assmann states in her book Der Lange
Schatten der Vergangenheit (The Long Shadow of the Past) on the culture of remembrance and the
politics of memory, the “potential impact deriving from an interpretation and appropriation of the
experience of history” constitutes a decisive aspect in the creation of collective identity. Monuments to
memory are therefore representations of a particular view of history, a time and a place and are perforce
contingent upon the perspective of those doing the commemorating.
Alongside the Holocaust, the Siege of Leningrad is considered to be one of the most egregious crimes in
the history of the Second World War. It took place between 8 September 1941 and 27 January 1944,
lasting almost 900 days with a death toll in excess of one million, predominantly civilians, primarily due to
severe malnutrition. Deliberately planned by the German forces, this tragedy is still barely imaginable in
its scale and are to be viewed in a wider context of the war of extermination perpetrated by Nazi Germany
against the Soviet Union.
Whereas the Siege of Leningrad has become both part of collective memory in the former Soviet Union
and today’s Russia and the focus of a dedicated official museum of remembrance in present-day St.
Petersburg, it barely features in public discourse in Germany today. Unlike many other groups who fell
prey to National Socialism, there is no public memorial in Germany to those who starved to death in
Leningrad. This lack of public awareness in Germany formed the starting point for 900 and Some 26 000
Days. The project is geared towards stimulating public debate and paying tribute to the victims of the
Siege of Leningrad by reflecting upon different possibilities of remembrance within the framework of an
integrated exhibition, accompanying film screening and program of discussion and talks.
Young artists from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Hamburg (twinned with St. Petersburg) present their
ideas and designs for possible public forms of artistic engagement with the topic of the siege. They met
initially in 2014 in a workshop in St. Petersburg in order to acquaint themselves with the historical facts,
meet contemporary witnesses, visit existing memorials in St. Petersburg and, on the basis of an exchange
on public art and the various approaches to it, think about how the Siege could be commemorated in St.
Petersburg – a city well-endowed with museums – as well as in Hamburg. The ideas generated by this
exchange will be presented at the Kunstverein in Hamburg from mid-October onwards. The exhibition will
be accompanied by a series of films in the arts cinema Metropolis as well as a program of discussion on
the evening prior to the opening and on the opening day itself.
A joint project, initiated by the Goethe-Institute Moscow / St. Petersburg, together with the
Kunstverein in Hamburg, the Rodchenko Art School, Moscow, the PRO ARTE Foundation, St.
Petersburg, the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, the Research Centre for Contemporary History
in Hamburg (FZH), the State Agency for Political Education, Hamburg, and the Metropolis Kino
Hamburg. With friendly support of the Ministry of Culture of the Free and Hanseatic City of
Hamburg.
Program
at Kunstverein in Hamburg, Klosterwall 23, Hamburg
October 15, 2015, 7 pm, Lecture
„ … es hätte nur ein Stückchen Brot gebraucht“: Die Belagerung Leningrads 1941–1944 als
katastrophales Ereignis im politischenund gesellschaftlichen Erinnern in Deutschland und Russland
by Ekaterina Makhotina (LMU München)
October 16, 2015, 1–6 pm, Symposium
Lectures: Axel Schildt (Research Centre for Contemporary History in Hamburg (FZH), Markus
Ambach (MAP Markus Ambach Projects), Polina Barskova (Hampshire College)
Panel: Michaela Melián (University of Fine Arts Hamburg), Haim Sokol (The Rodchenko Art School,
Moscow), Ludmila Belova (PRO ARTE Foundation, St. Petersburg)
Moderated by Astrid Wege (Goethe-Institute Moscow)
October 16, 2015, 7 pm, Opening of the exhibition
Speakers:
Ruth Bäßler (International cultural exchange, Ministry of Culture of the Free and Hanseatic City of
Hamburg)
Astrid Wege (Director of ultural program, Goethe-Institute Moscow)
Bettina Steinbrügge (Director, Kunstverein in Hamburg)
Film program
at Metropolis Kino, Kleine Theaterstraße 10, Hamburg
(curated by Thomas Tode, Metropolis Kino Hamburg)
October 19, 2015, 7 pm
Karmen / Komarewzew / Solowzow / Utschitel, Leningrad in the fight
(UdSSR 1942, 71 min., original version with subtitles)
October 30, 2015, 7 pm
Sergei Loznitsa, Blokada (Russia 2006, 52 min.)
November 12, 2015, 7 pm
Thomas Kufus, Blockade (Germany 1992, 93 min.)
December 7, 2015, 5 pm
Sachar Agranenko, Leningrad Symphony (UdSSR 1957, 92 min.)
Participants
University of Fine Arts Hamburg, Class of Michaela Melián: Tim Theo Geissler, Roy
Huschenbeth, Alice Astern Peragine, Judith Rau, Clara Wellner Bou
The Rodchenko Art School, Moscow, Class of Haim Sokol: Nadia Degtyareva, Nick Degtyarev,
Semen Kats, Nikolay Spesivtsev, Dzina Zhuk
PRO ARTE Foundation, St. Petersburg, Class of Ludmila Belova: Alexandr Androsov, Alexey
Grachev, Natalia Khvoenkova, Anastasia Kizilova, Vadim Leukhin, Natalia Tikhonova, Vadim
Zaitcev
15.10.2015, 7 pm
A SMALL PIECE OF BREAD IS ALL THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NEEDED
Lecture by Ekaterina Makhotina
The Siege of Leningrad from 1941-1944 as a Traumatic Event in the Political and Social Memory of
Germany and Russia
The German warfare strategy in the East that intended to starve the population of the megacity
Leningrad—today’s St. Petersburg—to death, has a different status in the social memory of the Federal
Republic and the Soviet Union, and then Russia. While in Russia, and especially in the city itself, the
experience of the siege and the gruesomeness of starvation is an extremely important memory, the
blockade remains a “sideshow” in the German culture of remembrance. Until today, the remembrance of
the 1.2 million victims in Leningrad has no fixed place in the memory of the Federal Republic, while in the
Soviet Union the victims of the blockade were addressed exclusively with a heroic undertone. In this
censored, reduced historical narrative, there was no room for the horror and trauma of the humanitarian
disaster. The lecture by Dr. des. Ekaterina Makhotina interrogates the reasons for this patchy memory in
Germany and outlines the specific features of the remembrance of the blockade victims in Soviet and
post-Soviet Russia.
Ekaterina Makhotina is a research assistant at the Faculty of the History of Eastern and Southeastern
Europe of the LMU Munich. She did her doctorate on the theme of “Fragmented Memories: The Second
World War in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Cultures of Remembrance in Lithuania” and has been heading
the project “Victory—Liberation—Occupation: War Memorials and Commemorations of the 70th
Anniversary of the End of the War in Post-Socialist Europe” (with Mischa Gabowitsch and Cordula
Gdaniec) since January 2015. She has given numerous lectures and seminars on the theme of blockade.
The lecture is in German. It will be followed by a discussion.
16.10.2015, 1 - 6 pm
SYMPOSIUM
1 - 1:45 pm
On Camps, Remembrance, Narration. The Culture of Remembrance in Art Between Memorial and
Narration
Lecture by Markus Ambach
The culture of remembrance engenders a large amount of art commissions in public space. Not only has
the relationship between (independent) art and public commission often been problematized, but also the
meaningfulness of memorial sculptures as such. How can the outsourcing and localization of memory in a
memorial be assessed today? Does it make a sensible contribution to lively remembrance, or instead
withdraw its subject matter from the format of narration and thus from the fluctuation in the population?
What do current forms of remembrance look like, and what adequate formats do artists come upon today?
In his lecture, Markus Ambach uses a subjective selection of examples to present excerpts of a debate
that, despite its academic character, is shaped by changing perspectives, economies and myth
formations.
Markus Ambach (*1963) is an artist, author and initiator of numerous art projects and exhibitions
specifically in public spaces. He studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and in 2002 founded the
project platform MAP, which develops, implements and operates international, context-related projects in
urban space, as well as theme specific exhibition spaces. In exhibitions such as “B1A40 Die Schönheit
der großen Straße,” “Ein ahnungsloser Traum vom Park” or “Choreografie einer Landschaft,” artists,
scientists, residents, and other social groups are included to deal with the relationship between art,
society, urbanity, and the city in a context-specific way. Markus Ambach teaches at various academies
and universities, among others, the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart and the UDK Berlin. He is
the author of numerous texts and editor of various publications.
2 - 2:45 pm
Hamburg and Leningrad – a Town Twinning During the Cold War
Lecture by Axel Schildt
An unusual picture: In the middle of the Cold War, at the end of March 1957, the Soviet flag flew over the
entrance of Hamburg’s Town Hall. It was on the occasion of the visit of the ambassador of the USSR,
Andrey Andreyevich Smirnov, to the Hanseatic city. Hamburg’s governing mayor, Kurt Sieveking (CDU),
had decided to present the flag, while the federal government under Konrad Adenauer eyed Hamburg’s
independent eastern policy with suspicion. Smirnov’s mission was to initiate a town twinning with
Leningrad, Hamburg’s first ever with a foreign city. It was agreed that same year. A core element was the
youth exchange agreed upon by the Hamburger Jugendring and the Leningrad Komsomol; until 1991,
youth delegations visited each other, at times accompanied by heated debates between the political youth
associations.
Axel Schildt, Prof. Dr. phil., born in 1951 in Hamburg, studied history, philosophy, German literature,
sociology, and political science in Hamburg and Marburg from 1970-1977; doctorate in 1980; internship
and second state examination in 1982; habilitation in 1991; various deputy professorships and
fellowships; director of the Research Centre for Contemporary History in Hamburg (FZH) and Professor
of Recent History at the University of Hamburg since 2002; member of the Hamburgische Akademie der
Wissenschaft since 2005; sabbatical for a research project in the frame of the “Pro
Geisteswissenschaften/opus magnum” program of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and the
VolkswagenStiftung from 2011-2013.
3:15 - 4 pm
Poetry and Art of the Blockade of Leningrad: Official, Unofficial and Others
Lecture by Polina Barskova (in English via Skype)
In her lecture, Polina Barskova argues that the culture of the blockade of Leningrad vacillates between
two extremes of publication: a culture of direct official circulation and one of “subsequent” publication
often implying a silencing of the author. Between the Soviet and anti-Soviet cultures of the blockade, one
can make important discoveries regarding the functioning and reception of the culture of the blockade.
Barskova will deal with authors such as Gennady Gor, Olga Berggolts, Tatiana Glebova, and others in her
lecture.
Polina Barskova published her first poem collection in 1991, and was finalist for the Debut Prize in 2000.
Translations into English she did for literary journals, anthologies, and monographs. Polina Barskova’s
poetry has won widely recognition: she has been shortlisted for Russian prizes including the Debut and
Andrei Bely, and has published numerous collections. As a professor for Russian literature at Hampshire
College, Barskova explores mythologies and texts of early Soviet-period writers from Leningrad - St.
Petersburg. For the last 10 years, her work focusses on the Siege of Leningrad (1941-1945).
16.15-17.30 Uhr
900 and Around 26,000 Days – The Culture of Remembrance and Art in Public Space
Panel discussion with Michaela Melián (Hamburg), Ludmila Belova (St. Petersburg), Haim Sokol
(Moscow), Moderation Astrid Wege
Michaela Melián
Born in Munich, lives in Munich and Hamburg. Studied art and music in Munich and London. Professor of
time-based media at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (since 2010). Current exhibitions and projects:
Muzeum Współczesne Wrocław, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Villa Stuck and Haus der Kunst München. July
2015: Wassermusik / Kunst im öffentlichen Raum - Project in Hamburg
Haim Sokol
Born in 1973 in Archangelsk, Russia. Graduated from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1996 B.A.,
2004 M.A.) and the Moscow Institute of Contemporary Art (2007). He teaches at the Rodchenko Art
School in Moskow. Sokol participated in the 2nd Kiev Biennial (2013), the 1st Indian Kochi-Muziris
Biennale (2012), the 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2009), and many other shows in
Russia and abroad. He lives and works in Moscow.
Ludmila Belova
Born in 1960 in Kamtchatka, Russian. She graduated from the Vasnetsov Abramtsevo Art and Industry
School in 1980. Her most recent exhibitions include On my way (parallel program of the 56th Venice
Biennale, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, 2015), Speed of Disappearance (ART re.FLEX gallery, St.
Petersburg, 2015), The Other Capital (Moscow Museum, 2014). She lives and works in St. Petersburg.
Conference languages: German – Russian
Project organizers
Goethe-Institute Moskau (Astrid Wege, Lisa Welitschko)
Goethe-Institute St. Petersburg (Angelika Eder, Jana Sobolewa)
Cooperation partners
For further information please contact:
Nadine Droste, public relations
[email protected], T +49 40 32 21 58
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FURTHER EXHIBITIONS
at Kunstverein in Hamburg
MALEREI, BÖSE (PAINTING, EVIL)
LYDIA BALKE, BIRGIT BRENNER, MARTIN EDER, BERNHARD MARTIN, DAWN MELLOR
October 17, 2015 – January 10, 2016
KUNSTVEREIN
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Klosterwall 23
20095 Hamburg
Germany
www.kunstverein.de
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