Jochen Gerz: Sites of Memory are People, not Monuments

Sites Of Memory Are People, Not Monuments
Jochen Gerz

Tuesday, November 10, 2015
19:00 at Gamle Rådhuset
Old Townhall - Trondheim folkebibliotek
Kongens gate/Kjøpmannsgata

Jochen Gerz in conversation with Tor Einar Fagerland, Head of Department of Historical Studies, NTNU; Julie Indstad Hole, Leader of Workers’ Youth League (AUF) in Trondheim; Milica Tomic, Professor at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, NTNU. Introduction by Florian Schneider, Head of Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, NTNU.

With responses by: Hanna Musiol, Associate Professor of English Literatures at NTNU; Ann-Kathrin Hertling, artist; Aida Miron, MFA candidate at Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, NTNU.

The discussion sets out to connect the current debates around the memorization and remembrance of the 22nd of July in Trondheim and Norway. How does contemporary art contribute to the processes of memorization of traumatic events?

Please note: This event takes place in Gamle Rådhus (Old Town Hall) in Trondheim: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rådhuset_i_Trondheim_(gamle)

Jochen Gerz is an internationally renowned conceptual artist who, throughout his career, has instigated a novel discourse on memorialization and introduced new forms for public art. His practice makes a radical break with the traditions of monumental sculpture. By questioning the rituals of 20th century commemoration it sets out to transform the relationships between artwork, the viewer, artist and environment. Since the end of the 1960s Gerz has contributed essentially to a new understanding of public space.

Gerz’s art refuses to be contained by the normative parameters of “genre”. Rather, it aims at crossing the boundary between the object and viewer by introducing dynamic forms of audience participation. Subverting the idea of commemoration Gerz activates the public and mass media in the process of creating and defining the artwork. Since the 1980s, he has created numerous significant projects and sites in Germany, France, Italy, England, Austria and Ireland, all informed by his counter-monument approach.

Born in Berlin 1940, Jochen Gerz lived in Paris from 1966 to 2007 and is now based in Ireland. He studied in Cologne, Basel, London (literature, sinology, prehistory) from 1959 to 1963. He starts taking up writing and photography, before making video, performances, installations combining different media and techniques. His recent works include 2-3 Streets (Duisburg, Dortmund, Mülheim an der Ruhr), The Square of the European Promise (Bochum), amaptocare (Ballymun) and Salviamo La Luna (Milan).

His most recent project, the Square of the European Promise develops over a period of over ten years. It is an invitation to citizens from all over Europe to become authors: for 6 months, over days and nights, 185000 letters are engraved in the giant stone plaques to cover the new square in the city of Bochum. The inauguration of the square is planned for December 22th, 2015.