In absence of memory

Our project explores the triangular relationship between perpetrator, victim and memory. With a starting point of the German Occupation of Greece in 1941-1944, we are researching visual archive material depicting the casualties of the German Occupation: starvation victims, executions of civilians and members of the Greek Resistance from German firing squads and images of Nazis in Greece.

How does the victim seek to escape from passive victimization, psychological and physical tyranny and play an active role in shaping the history? How is the uncertain danger of the occupier's terrorism offset by conscious choices of exposure to foreseeable dangers? Who writes the history? How does the collective memory narrate the events 80 years after the Occupation?

In the latest years, there is an active interest from the German Foreign Ministry to reform the collective memory in Greece of the German Occupation in 1941-1944. This is reflected in funding German-Greek Collaborative foundations and platforms aiming to Greek educational system and narrating an abstract and (a)political version of the history, blurring the lines between perpetrators and victims.

Using mixed media and photo transfer techniques in archival images we create abstract depictions of the documented events, illustrating the current status of collective memory and raising questions on the ‘ownership’ of historical events.