What is the price of memory and what is the cost of amnesia? Or: Visions and illusions of anti-imperialist solidarity
Echoes of the Brother Countries is a three-year multidisciplinary project that artistically explores the complex relationship between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and its so-called brother countries.
Image gallery
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
A special focus is on Cuba, Ghana, Mozambique and Vietnam. Among all brother countries, they had the largest share of exported labor and they share a painful history of deportations after reunification, combined with a lack of financial compensation for the labor services of their citizens:in. These are also the countries whose "shared citizens" with the GDR became prominent and visible victims of racism and rejection in reunified Germany.
But how much did ordinary GDR citizens know about their history back then? And how much does post-1989 Germany know about them?
In its approach, the project emphasizes an open process and accessibility: it opens up important historical research from scholarly and archival contexts as well as oral histories, artworks, cartographic interpretations, new translations, films, musical compositions, and radio recordings in multiple languages to the public.
Multidisciplinarity and participation are at the core of the approach, which echoes the "echo" in the title loud and clear; project participants and audiences will carry it forward and amplify it in a variety of ways. A publication series using the genre of comics accompanies the project and provides visualization and contextualization in terms of its pedagogical goals.
There will be exhibitions, performances, workshops, film screenings, narratives, podcasts and publications.
