Munich: The multimedia exhibition “Tell Europe”. – Munich

There is war in Europe. And if you look a little further back in history, you realize that this has unfortunately always been the norm and that the peace we are familiar with was only a special case. The killing in Ukraine doesn’t make it any more bearable. But it may make it even clearer how fragile peace or even Europe is. Europe as an idea. As a utopia. As a cultural and historical area of ​​experience, which many today almost exclusively associate with bureaucracy, erroneously equating it with the EU. The fact that Europe is, was or could be much more can be seen on the website workaneuropa.com experience. As well as currently in an exhibition in the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts.

Both belong together. “Work on Europe” is an association founded “startled” by Brexit, which includes more than 30 young intellectuals from Europe. These meet regularly and launch projects, for which the “European Archives of Voices” counts. More than 50 young intellectuals met with representatives of their grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ generation to talk to them about the past and future of Europe, their experiences, fears or hopes. You can read about the conversations at arbeitaneuropa.com. You can listen to them at an audio station in the traveling exhibition “Telling Europe”, and you can see photos of individual participants in the conversation, taken by the young Berlin photographer Maximilian Gödecke.

The photos are open to interpretation

These include: The ancient historian Christian Meier, born in 1929, who last taught in Munich until his retirement in 1997; the artist Elisa Montessori, born in Genoa in 1931; and the language teacher Vera Szekeres Varsa, born in Budapest in 1933, who was the chair of Amnesty International in Hungary. In the conversations they talk about the war, growing up in poverty under Mussolini or what life was like as a Jewess in Hungary. Meier’s face can be seen in the shadows on the photos, which are classified according to themes such as “childhood”, “protest” or “future”. Montessori hid behind a curtain. And Varsa is sitting in a chair facing the window. In another picture she raises her fist.

The photos are ambiguous, open to interpretation. Many appear to be nostalgic, shaped by longing. A storm is brewing in the sky. A storm over Europe? Most of the pictures were taken in one afternoon, with some Gödecke spent three days. The photographer talked about this enthusiastically on the opening night, which was also attended by poets Anja Kampmann and Daniela Danz. With “Kein Haus aus Sand”, Kampmann has made a radio play based on the “Archive of Voices”, which one on the SWR2 website Can be found. Danz is working on an opera libretto. Their joint summary: work on Europe is needed. It’s important to tell each other stories. Because only those who share a common history also have a common future.

Telling Europe, until March 17, Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, Max-Joseph-Pl. 3, www.badsk.de

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