das bleibt unter uns (this remains between us)

das bleibt unter uns (engl. this remains between us)

Sexual abuse is a taboo topic, the unrecorded cases are many and the affected often suffer an entire life from the consequences.

The series "this remains between us" is a rehabilitation from sexual abuse within one's own family. Jana Kießer looks to her past in search of clues. Through the inner confrontation of former emotional situations and images from her childhood, as well as her diary and letters from her imprisoned father, she reactivates her feelings and captures them photographically.

Loaded, subjective photographs visualise feelings like fear and threat, as well as conditions from the years of emotional recovery into a symbolic-associative visual language.

The series includes her own analog images captured as a child, which portray the life circumstances of her family in a suburban small town as well as her contemporary recollections from the past. Additionally text passages from the fathers letters are set in opposition to excerpts from the artists former diary.

Jana Kießer takes us into the depths of the injured soul - dark, questioning, irrecognizable - Insights into the unknown, obscure scenes, brokenness, threats, extortion of being unconcerned, innocence and femininity / a state of shock, uprooting, blackout, immobility, violence and the constant fear of encountering the offender again.

The long process of recovering and its linked feelings are reworked by transferring them to the photographic medium. Beyond that the body of work is designed to encourage people who are affected, to break their silence and work through their story.

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