Site-specific Installation.

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Memory …….

Daily for two weeks, fourteen days, two hundred and sixty six postcards images were unanimously sent to nineteen people who visited Berlin, Germany.  The Postcard Project Mailing followed a particular week-long journey which the group was touring the concentration camps of Sachsenhausen, Germany. 

 

The postcard is a memory object. It objectifies memory in a print. 

The postcard became a mnemonic object of ones travels.

 

Postcards are significant cultural memory objects as memorabilia. They reveal an importance of choosing an image to note the physical experience of people in a place, within a time, creating their own history.  Postcards become the identifier of "being there”.

 

The Sequence:

Day One - Identify Place

“Wunschte Du warst hier” 

Wish you were here, the city of Berlin.

The classic postcard, prominent images that identify the place, the city of Berlin. A popular expression of sharing the experience is I wish you were here. 

 

Day Two - Identify of the individual person in Context or in Place

Identify the person in context. The person identifies themselves in the place of memory as if to say - I am here!  Also reference art, posters that the individual pointed out publicly, this image memory was photographed, made into a postcard and sent to the individual observer identified in the postcard. 

 

Day Three - History, Memory of Place

Aftermath/Devastation - Acres of ruins from World War II. Women left behind raking rubble. The city of Berlin at the end of the war physically annihilated. A majority of women from the city were raped and or killed at the end of the war as the communists arrive to take the city.

 

Day Four - Experience Place

Sachsenhausen concentration Arbeit Macht Frei, “Work Makes You Free.” Prisoners were greeted by this sign, a sign of death, at the entrance.

 

Day Five - Location/ History

Images of Sachsenhausen, Rusty barbed wire, the void, symbolic footprint of Camp site with only the remaining gravel foundation. A conscious choice was made not to recreate the campsite. 

 

Day Six - Contemplative Images

Contemplations of Sachsenhausen.

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Day Seven - Heinous Acts 

The unthinkable.

Prisoners’ crucifixion. Prisoner’s wrist were tied behind their back and hung by their tied wrists on hooks dislocating shoulders, till this created suffocation. They were left on these racks to be seen by others until their eventual death. 

 

Day Eight - Nature as Witness

The trees that witness the atrocities stand watch over the campsite.

 

Day Nine - Art/ Architecture/ Memorial

Further memorial sites. Jewish Museum

 

Day Ten and forward…- Where memory remains

Postcard images become abstraction. A reflection in the individuals non-consciousness toward reflection. Reflective waters, non-figurative relationship.

 

The postcard functions as a memory object. The act of choosing and purchasing postcards objectifies memory in a print or pictorial form. Postcards become the identifier of "being there". The postcard becomes a mnemonic object after travels.

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Postcards are significant cultural memory objects. Postcard memorabilia reveal an importance of the physical experience of people in a place, within a time, creating their own history.

The Postcard Project in its final form is displayed as an exhibit on public view. A writing wall was created for written responses to the postcard images from participants and public alike.