Stricken

Installation by Magda Korsinsky

This project is based on interviews with Afro-German women whose white grandmothers lived during the times of National Socialism. How do different generations navigate these particular familial ties? Which values are transmitted from one generation to the next? Which are accepted, which criticised, questioned, changed, or rejected? What do Afro-Germans think about the National Socialist pasts of their grandparents? How does this knowledge influence their relationships? And how does it influence these women’s own views of themselves?
The critical confrontation with the heritage of our ancestors, and how we traverse these patterns and entanglements, constitute the core of this interdisciplinary work.

This project is visually constructed through an expansive textile installation. The textiles used are fabrics from the everyday lives of the interview partners: inherited and worn remains of their German familial histories. They are sewn into large webs, like floating screens dividing the room. The interviews show how these Afro-German women question the National Socialist pasts of their grandparents, and reveal both familial intimacy and conflicts.

The inspiration for this work was the book My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers her Family’s Nazi Past by Jennifer Teege, who found out as a 38-year-old that she was the granddaughter of Amon Göth, the commander of a concentration camp.

Whomever is related to Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring or Amon Göth, is forced to confront their familial history. But what about all the others, all the nameless followers and accomplices?

Jennifer Teege

Magda Korsinsky is a visual artist, choreographer and lecturer of Czech-Eritrean heritage. She was born in 1981 in Prague, and grew up in Stuttgart, later studying Visual Art at the UdK Berlin, ENSBA Paris, and AVU Prague. She has worked as an independent artist since ending her “Meisterschüler” in the summer of 2007. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions, including at the Haus am Lützowplatz, Gallery Bourouina, Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien, Kunsthaus Dresden, Künstlerhaus Sootbörn, Städtische Galerie Böblingen, and Galerie Dengler und Dengler in Stuttgart. She received the “Screening 2014” award for her screen printing works from the Association for the Development of Visual Artists in Hildesheim. In November 2014, she also received the art prize from the „Neue Kunst hat Freunde“ association in Ahrenshoop. Her choreography works have been included in productions in the Tanztage (Sophiensaele), Maxim Gorki Theater, Uferstudios, and Ballhaus Naunynstrasse.

 

With kind support of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin

STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre
STRICKEN | Photo: Raisa Galofre