Remember, Experience, Connect
A Dialogic Search for Traces Through Time
School Project: Isaac-Newton-Schule
In a four-day workshop, students from the Isaac-Newton-Schule concentrated on the lives of contract workers in the German Democratic Republic. In order to explore the past and build a bridge to the present, the pupils entered into a dialogue with former contract workers Miki Do, Lucía Muriel, and Paulino Miguel, accompanied by the two artists Denise Lee and Dean Ruddock. Prior to this, together with the artists, the students traced the historical context in which the everyday lives of the contract workers were embedded. From this, they created a set of guidelines for the interviews with these contemporary witnesses who shared their perspectives and experiences from their day to day life in the Bruderländer. Questions they tackled included: How have the experiences of contract workers in the GDR inscribed themselves in today’s society? And why do these themes still concern us? These life stories revealed a wealth of knowledge, which the students then wove into creative audio pieces, combining them with specially produced ambient background sound and music to enhance their evocative nature: a media-transmitted echo told in five stories.
Participating school: Isaac-Newton-Schule with Sally Begrow, Acelya Caliskan, Anna Dräger, Geraldine Großmann, Victoria Klingimberg, Larissa Krug, Zoe Lechner, Sienna Lehmann, Savaş Schultze, Ahmad Chehade, Selina Villwock
Teacher: Therese Friedemann
Artists: Denise Lee and Dean Ruddock, mediale pfade e. V.
Contemporary witnesses: Paulino Miguel, Miki Do, Lucía Muriel
Works in the exhibition:
4 audio pieces: Lucía Muriel interviewed by Ahmad Chehade and Savas Schultze, 1' 08"; Lucía Muriel interviewed by Sally Begrow and Selina Villwock, 3' 15"; Paulino Miguel interviewed by Sannas (Sienna Lehmann and Anna Dräger) 15' 07". All courtesy of the artists
Interviews
Year: 2023
Language: German
An interview with Lucía Muriel by Ahmad Chehade and Savas Schultze
An interview with Lucía Muriel by Sally Begrow and Selina Villwock
An interview with Paulino Miguel by Larissa Krug and Geraldine Großmann
An interview with Paulino Miguel by Sienna Lehmann and Anna Dräger