Sound Installation with Lissening Session “Echo, May 8–9”

Sun sails bring archival fragments into the museum garden, connecting the past and present at the site of the surrender. In the “Listening Sessions,” we engage performatively with personal perspectives through music, historical objects, sounds, and other found objects.

As we walk, listen, and linger together, a space emerges for reflection and exchange about ruptures, continuities, and the question: What do May 8 and 9 mean to us today, and how do we engage with the Soviet legacy as we remember these events? The “Listening Sessions” strive to pluralize the memory of the end of World War II and invite us to question existing perspectives.

The installation is open all day. The Listening Session takes place at 3:00 p.m.

Under the Open Monument Day theme “NetzWERKE: Monuments and Infrastructure,” the Berlin-Karlshorst Museum offers diverse approaches to the site’s history—from traces of the Soviet legacy to artistic perspectives on memory and the present.

The program “HISTORY IN LAYERS” reveals how the eventful history of the museum building and its various phases of use are reflected to this day in its architecture and preserved inscriptions. Guided tours and performance art offer insights into the museum’s Soviet heritage, the history of World War II, and the challenges of a multi-perspective culture of remembrance. The program is complemented by a reading café on the museum terrace.