Muntadas Projekte (1974-2000)
Author: Muntadas
Publisher:
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 292
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis bilingual pair of books grew out of Muntadas' 2004-2005 exhibition at the Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen, “Muntadas Projects (1974-2004). On Translation: Spaces of Memory”. One book presents traditional catalogue essays, images of exhibited works and interviews, while the other - the “city guide” - documents a site specific project carried out by Muntadas in the city of Bremen during the exhibition. This project involved identifying and cataloging city buildings that had changed function over the past 100 years. A photograph of each building in the present is paired with a photograph of the same building in a former incarnation. Short texts, written in the style of guidebook descriptions, trace the buildings' histories without offering commentary, but the cumulative effect of seeing libraries, universities and apartment buildings replace police headquarters, barracks and bunkers is chilling. Even those building evolutions that don't overtly reference World War II effectively address the question posed by the artist in his introduction, “Should places erase memories?...of repression, crimes, torture...should the sight and awareness of disasters remain / be maintained?” Another project in this guide book documents various commodified representations the traditional Grimm's fairy tale “The Bremen Town Musicians”.