Hidden & Vanished

Two prisons in the heart of the city, where people were incarcerated for various reasons during the GDR era. One remains, hidden within an administrative building. The other has vanished.

The remand prison on Keibelstraße and the women’s prison on Barnimstraße tell the story of a system that determined who belonged and who did not, what was permitted and what was punished. It is about deviation and conformity, about control, about decisions that are not free.

And about the questions that remain: What is worth remembering? What remains? And what disappears?

On Keibelstraße, the rooms still stand—cells, hallways, doors—a building from 1951, right in the middle of the city. On Barnimstraße, nothing remains; the prison from 1864 was demolished. An artistic audio tour guides you into the women’s experience: their voices, their thoughts, their decisions.

Over the course of about 120 minutes, you move between these two places, between what is hidden and what has vanished, between what was and what remains.

IN GERMAN