»PRIMAVERA«

Since 2024, German-Italian artist duo Manu Gruber and Tim Gassauer have been exploring the question of a possible return of fascism in Europe in their joint project »PRIMAVERA«.

In »PRIMAVERA« (ital. for "spring"), German-Italian artist duo Manu Gruber and Tim Gassauer are dealing with the question of a possible return of fascism in Europe. The starting point for their collaborative work is the Ossola Valley, located in the northern Italian Alps, which was liberated from fascist occupation by Italian partisans in September 1944 and became a sovereign partisan republic for a brief period of 40 days.

Based on the history of resistance in the Ossola Valley, Manu Gruber and Tim Gassauer follow the traces of the partisan republic into its intersections with a political present that can increasingly be understood as (pre-)fascist. »PRIMAVERA« interweaves images of alpine mountain landscapes and architectures with portraits of young adults who are now the same age their equally young ancestors were when they joined the armed resistance against fascism around 80 years ago.

In collaboration with the »Casa della Resistenza« memorial site in Verbania, Manu Gruber and Tim Gassauer also researched archive material showing the young circles of friends of the partisans who, with limited resources, stood up to the superior German SS and Wehrmacht units. The subsequent connection of historical and contemporary visual contexts opens up a space for reflection that uses the ongoing questioning of the past for its significance for the present as a method of visual insight.

In 2024, Tim Gassauer and Manu Gruber were awarded the Berlin Senate Administration's research grant for their work. Through several stays on site, the artist duo spoke with the last contemporary witnesses, connected with young people who are now the age the partisans once were, and carried out extensive research on both the landscape of the Ossola Valley as well as on the archives of the resistance fights during World War II.