Esther Shalev-Gerz: The Perpetual Movement of Memory

Commemoration monuments, as we know them, no longer correspond to the hopes and aspirations of a society that orients itself more and more everyday toward movement and procedure by refusing the status quo. It seems to me that, today, reflective thought on the movement must lead to creating a space where our reflections, our emotions, our approaches toward historical data can be deepened by stimulating our current convictions in regard to this data, as the past is only a tool for considering the present. The articulation of remembering and forgetting is made in relation to two distinct poles: on the one hand, collective or public knowledge, that is to say everything to do with means of communication, information and education, such as the media; on the other hand, the personal relationship that we maintain with our past experiences and especially with our own present. However, these opposite poles combine together to form a perpetual movement, constantly in a state of imbalance.

In my "Works in Public Space," a space is constructed for this memory which is activated by participation, that is to say, the moment when the supposed spectator writes his name, uses his word or sends in his photo. Thanks to the traces left during these actions, the participants keep the memory of their own participation in the work's procedure which also bears witness to their responsibility to their own times.

With the "Hamburg/Harburg Monument Against Fascism," I simultaneously attempted to install "forgetting" in a place of "remembering" and thus establish, through the act of public participation, each person's memory, that is to say, a fleeting, subjective and fragmented memory. In 1986, Jochen Gerz and I installed a lead column on the town square and invited passers-by to write their name on it’s surface. Next to it a panel which bore the following text, translated in seven languages including Turkish, Arabic and Hebrew:

We invite the citizens of Harburg, and visitors to the town, to add their names here to ours. In doing so we commit ourselves to remain vigilant. As more and more names cover this 12 meters tall lead column, it will gradually be lowered into the ground. One day it will have disappeared completely, and the site of the Harburg "Monument Against Fascism" will be empty. In the long run, it is only we ourselves who can stand up against injustice.

As the accessible part of the column was being covered with signatures, it was lowered into the ground, making no free space available for signatures. There were seven lowerings in all and, in 1993, the column disappeared completely from sight. Only a plaque on the ground remains. What each person engraved on the metal–signature, tribute, insult, graffiti–was printed in their own memory but has now disappeared from other people's view. During the existence of the column, history also altered the situation in Germany: the fall of the Berlin Wall, reunification and the resurgence of neo nazis, had an effect on political awareness which transformed people's relationship with the monument. From its status as a forging object, perceived as an almost aggressive element, the monument became a kind of public forum, as well as an outlet for anger, and it was attacked on several occasions (gunshots, fires). These after-effects then disappeared like all the rest.

The notoriety of the Harburg monument in the 1990s led several German towns to express the desire to erect monuments that would evoke Nazism and bear the names of their lost Jewish inhabitants. My reaction to these requests was to propose monuments that did not bear the names of the persecuted but of the persecutors, because compassion for the victims tends to rely on the comfort provided by historical distance, on humanizing and personalizing those who have been subjected to the effects of a mechanism of destruction which has dehumanized them in order to better exterminate them.

In each of my projects, as in the "Monument Against Fascism," the process relies on perturbing the relationship between the producer and spectator, on a gift of the word and on a memory which is constructed and transformed by participation, by an approach creating a memory, a souvenir (the "I was there") through the commitment of people to the times.

In 1996, at Oberhausen, in the industrial Ruhr region, every week for two months, the local newspaper published a page with a question addressed to their readers: "If the 20th century could start all over again, what would you like to change?" More than 300 people, of every age and every social background, replied to this question and their participation was the object of an exhibition and publication. It was during the preparation of the exhibition that the idea came to me for the work "Reasons For Smiles." When conversing with people who had replied to the Oberhausen question, I noticed that, in spite of the commitment they had made by writing something that closely concerned them or that they were convinced of, these people were paradoxically reluctant to give an image of themselves, a simple photograph.

"Reasons For Smiles" consisted of asking people, within the framework of training courses or workshops or through advertisements in newspapers and posters, to be photographed or to photograph themselves while thinking about something that might make them smile, and then send back the film undeveloped. The result, enlarged black and white and color negatives, placed on mirrors, was each time exhibited on the very site where the intervention took place.

As from 1996, "Reasons For Smiles" was made in several towns throughout the world, in Germany, Canada, the States and in France, notably in Paris, through the use of electronic city billboards, the daily newspaper, Libération and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, at Arles within the framework of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, and on the island of Ouesssant following a proposal from the Quimper Fine Arts College. Once again, it was a matter of creating a person's active memory through participation in a public project, which was not guided by personal gain but which, on the contrary, relied on the notion of a gift. In response to this gift, as indicated by the text accompanying the project, both of us committed ourselves to using each film received and to continue this work until one of us died.

Made during the month of May 1998, the "Berlin Instruction Project" relies on the voice, because the first democratic act is to raise your voice in public. Based on a text destined for the theater of Peter Weiss, the Instruction is reconstituted from the minutes of the International Auschwitz Trials, which took place in Frankfurt between 1963 and 1965. The project was to stage an "interactive" production. As Bertold Brecht wrote, regarding the radio, a medium becomes democratic when producers and spectators become permutable, interchangeable. Just as Peter Weiss did not write the Instruction text himself, but used the trial text so it was possible for us to put "nothing on the stage" and for the actors to say nothing except address themselves to the spectators who had come to see the play and ask them to read the text themselves and so transform the principle of passivity into an active experience.

Several months before the shows, we sent a letter to the subscribers of different Berlin theatres–the Hebbel Theater, the Berliner Ensemble and the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemborg-Platz–requesting their participation in the project without any professional criteria. More than 600 volunteers assisted at several preliminary seminars and participated in different events that were part of the project, which took place in the mediatic space. Approximately 150 participants thus accepted to have a photo of themselves–mentioning their name, age, profession and address with an extract of the text by Peter Weiss–in one of the biggest daily Berlin newspapers, the Tagesspiegel for a full month. Others read passages from the text, recorded with the help of an answering machine and destined to be broadcast at random on the radio during programs. Following the same procedure, personalities from German public life–popular singers, politicians, actors–were filmed reading passages from the Instruction in the streets of Berlin, which were broadcast during cultural programs on ZDF, the second German TV channel.

The Berlin Instruction played for 5 evenings, between May 25th and June 1st, 1998, in the three main Berlin Theaters to a full house. In the theater, which remained lighted so that people could see each other without any attempt at dramatization and in front of the stage without decor or actors (it contained the "EXIT Dachau Project Installation" by Jochen Gerz which the spectators were invited to go and consult during the play), eight actors chose people or groups of people from the public and asked them to read passages from the text, while the volunteers formed choirs (Peter Weiss considered his text to be an oratorio) interpreting other fragments.

In Irreparable #85, realized for the foto/Graphic Galerie Käthe Kollwitzin 1998, I raise the question of individual responsibility towards one’s time in public space ("Irreparable" is a series of works that I started in 1987.)

I confront the inhabitants and visitors of Kollwitzplatz, a historical place as well as the ancient site of Käthe Kollwitz’s house, with the odds between the present and the past. Käthe Kollwitz (1967-1945) was an artist devoted to the human condition who denounced the atrocities of war. A Käthe Kollwitz memorial in the form of a light box is located in front of her former house on Kollwitzstrasse in Berlin (EAST). this light box is regularly made available to a contemporary artist and this is how an active work on memory is continuing.

Irreparable #85 makes use of a negative image of Käthe Kollwitz’s ancient house exhibited in the light box (that stands today as a monument for creativity) filled up with blue color which is identical to the blue of the wall of the recent building. With this work the artist suggests an impossible way leading forwards and backwards in time. At night, only inverse image of the building filled with light is visible.

In the work The Portraits of Stories, 1998-99, Marseilles, Beisunce I invite the inhabitants of Belsunce, the Arab neighborhood of Marseilles, to answer the question "What story must be told today?" in collaboration with the students of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the artist run space "La Compagnie." Every participant, out of the sixty, was free to decide the content of his story, the place and image of the filming of his intervention. All the answers were put together in a video compilation (two hours) from which a photographic work resulted in 60 portraits containing two people at a time. The photographic work retains the visual moments of entanglement in this "portrait by works." Today’s portraits consist of one person talking and–at the same time–of one person listening. While one person is still telling his story, the image of the following appears behind him in transparent super imposition while moving in the slowest motion. Finally he starts talking himself. This fictive dialog links the individual interventions and forms a collective portrait of the Belsunce neighborhood.

Through contribution or gift, a public space emerges allowing us to transform ourselves, to keep our memory flowing and inextricably linked to others. The interest in creating such situations, whether they are the showing of the instruction or the setting up of the Harburg Column, always resides in the collective responsibility that is expressed through action, that forms a personal and sensitive experience, renewing the notion of ritual.

Synopsis by Carrie Hornbeck

Esther Shalev-Gerz focused her presentation on the discussion of three collaborative works involving herself, her husband Jochen Gerz, and effectively the audience that participated in those works. She began by discussing their "Monument Against Fascism," a piece sponsored by the city of Hamburg-Harburg, Germany, in 1983. She explained that the commissioning board specifically called for artists who had no prior experience working with monuments. The artists were eager to design a structure in which the present would take precedence–by this route the past could surface with its inherent reinterpretation made apparent.

The 40-foot high lead-covered monument first surfaced in 1986 with an invitation–in seven languages–to pen a name against fascism. As the column filled with text, it would gradually be lowered into an underground shaft, until all that remained was a plaque to mark its existence. The piece had its own life; it became a community board without restriction. No control was exerted over the inscription of diverse symbols such as hearts and swastikas, or the erasure and marking out of prior contributions. The monument legitimized uncensored expression–and the climate in Germany surrounding the 1989 tumbling of the Berlin Wall afforded a ripe opportunity.

The artists’ structure questioned the role of a monument, decidedly stating that a monument is by and for the people. Installed as temporary and temporal, "Monument Against Fascism" did not simply appear into a space, only to disappear according to the artists' previously ordained time line. It's unsightliness could effectively be done away with by the public's participation. This aspect of the work mimicked the process of an ideal democracy–a public space open to unrestricted thought, in which an unwanted figure could be impeached–but only subsequent to an engaged and all-encompassing dialogue.

Shalev-Gerz also discussed a collaborative project titled "Reasons for Smiles" that took place in various locales including Paris, Vancouver, and Tallahassee, Florida. Advertisements were run asking people to "simply think of something that makes you smile," take pictures and mail in the undeveloped film. When the photographs were collected, they were produced as negative images framed on mirrors and hung in various sizes, salon style. The finished objects take on a sculptural quality in which one sees oneself as well as the subject portrayed–the self and the other.

Shalev-Gerz accounted for the fact that the resulting depictions did not accurately represent the ethnic make-up of each community. Imagery was presented with little or no selection, so that the origin of incoming film was determined by a myriad of factors that could not be accurately or definitively determined. For example, two Tallahassee universities–one predominantly black and one largely white–were asked to photograph students from the neighboring school. Most of the resulting imagery was of black students. Shalev-Gerz's conclusion that the white students were more willing to approach the black university than conversely speaks to complex social factors that beg questioning.

Lastly, Shalev-Gerz spoke about a recent appropriation of a Peter Weiss text, "The Investigation," in which audiences were invited to three Berlin theaters to enact the piece themselves. Ten seminars were held in which the audience was coached by actors to read from a text. During five nights, audiences paid to come to the theaters, sit and read aloud.

Finally, Shalev-Gerz explained that the reenactment is about using your voice in public. As such, it seems very much in keeping with "Monument Against Fascism" and "Reasons for Smiles." The Gerzs’ are continuing to uphold the laudable practice of making equal space for an audience.

Analysis by Richard McCabe

The art of Jochen Gerz and Esther Shalev-Gerz does not work without the participation of the public. This relationship between the artist, artwork, and audience is a departure from traditional public art works. In the past, public art meant art in public places. The public’s relationship to the work was one of a passive observer. The work of Jochen and Esther Shalev-Gerz is art in which the public is an active participant.

With the three works Esther Shalev-Gerz discussed "The Monument Against Fascism," "Reasons For Smiles" and "Peter Weiss: The Investigation," participation by the public was the key ingredient in determining the outcome of the work. With these projects, Jochen and Esther Shalev-Gerz gave voice to the audience. By allowing the public to participate in the work, the work thus became a mirror of the community.

These works were not about aesthetics; they are about the process of giving a voice to the individual. They are a catalysts for self-examination. "The Monument Against Fascism," "Reasons For Smiles," and "Peter Weiss: The Investigation" were works in which the audience was forced to confront itself.

With "The Monument Against Fascism," Esther Shalev-Gerz stated, "No monument can do anything against Fascism, only we can rise up against fascism." "The Monument Against Fascism" was a column 40 meters high and 1 meter square. Its outer layer was made of lead. A pen was attached to the column which enabled people to sign their names onto the surface of the column, as a clear sign of their opposition to fascism. Over the course of a number of years the monument was slowly lowered into the ground where it eventually disappeared. By allowing individuals to sign their names and opinions onto the surface of the monument, the work thus became a barometer of the feelings of the community of Hamburg towards fascism.

Esther Shalev-Gerz stated that their art "Is about giving something of one’s self." With the "Reasons For Smiles" project, the public was asked to give of themselves in the form of a smile. By giving of their smiles they became a part of an ever-changing piece. In each community in which a fragment of the "Reasons for Smiles" project took place, the community was asked to photograph others within or outside of their own community. The form in which the work took shape was determined by the interaction between the individuals and their community. The traditional relationship between the artist and the audience was subverted, as individual participants in the project became the "artists" shaping the work.

This role reversal between artist and audience was also key in a work based on the text of "Peter Weiss: The Investigation." Held in three theaters in Berlin, the audience read the text of "The Investigation." This act of theater in reverse broke down the traditional structure of the theater. The audience became the actors. This work also expanded the notion of what is public space. Theaters like galleries are exclusionary structures. By giving the audience a voice in the play of "Peter Weiss: The Investigation," the piece became a public performance.

The work of Jochen and Esther Shalev-Gerz transcends typical notions of the relationship between artist and audience. It also expands the notion of what is public space. Their work is a tool that instigates dialogue. In the work of Jochen and Esther Shalev-Gerz the product is not a commodity, it is the collective consciousness of the community, something intangible, yet real.