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Forms of an appropriate artistic examination of the Holocaust
In the context of the exhibition "On the Abyss of Images" by the artist Michael Müller in St. Matthäus-Kirche, the St. Matthäus Foundation, Bard College Berlin, the Evangelische Akademie zu Berlin and Michael Müller himself invite you to the two-day symposium "On the Abyss of Images " a. This symposium will be held from August 31 to September 1, 2023 at St. Matthew's Church.
Image gallery
Michael Müller, Mögliche und unmögliche Bilder #I, 2022 (Detail), Ausstellung »Am Abgrund der Bilder« in der St. Matthäus-Kirche © Studio Michael Müller, Foto: © Frank Sperling
What appropriate artistic expressions might be appropriate for memory? How can we visually approach the cataclysmic events of the Holocaust? What relevance do images have when the eyewitnesses are no longer present?
These questions form the starting point of the symposium, at which internationally renowned experts from the fields of visual studies, philosophy and philosophy of religion will enter into discussions with one another. Among the participants are personalities such as Prof. Dr. Benjamin Buchloh, Prof. Dr. Thomas Macho, Prof. Gideon Greif, Prof. Dr. Almut Shulamit Bruckstein, Prof. Dr. Hubertus von Amelunxen and Lukas Töpfer.
In 1949, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno noted that "to write a poem after Auschwitz was barbaric", which also questioned other forms of artistic engagement with the Holocaust. In view of Michael Müller's exhibition "Am Abgrund der Bilder", which is a critical reflection on Gerhard Richter's "Birkenau Cycle" in the Neue Nationalgalerie, the question of appropriate artistic approaches to the Holocaust is raised again.
