Exposition

A History of Violence (2023)

Kai Ziegner
open exposition

About this exposition

en
Through experimental writing and conceptual photography, my PhD uses my own biography to investigate the consequences of societal transformation processes in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The focus is on the period of regime change known as the »Wendezeit« in the late 1980's to the early 1990's in East Germany. To date, this subject has been analysed primarily by scholars of history and cultural sciences, while approaches to this topic by artistic researchers are still rare. With my research, I would like to reveal causes for the outbreaks of violence that accompanied this radical shift. The objective of my PhD is thus to submit critical testimony to the silence about seldom-discussed side effects of the transformation during and after the turnaround which Germans call the »Wende«. Based on the example of (my own) individual history, it demonstrates how authoritarian regimes and structures impacted on three generations of citizens, and how they affected the individuals. Throughout an experimental narrative, outbreaks ofsenseless violence are treated as side effects of disruptive transformation processes, just as are ambivalent situations in which actors of social change recognise themselves to be simultaneously victims and perpetrators of violent incidents. Since personal memories and historical documents served as the basis of this work, the central challenge of my artistic research was to carve out generalisable elements from individual examples, and to try out and experiment with various textual and photographic formats to find an adequate way to present the research material. Important sources of inspiration for this process included works like Alexander Kluge’s »Lebensläufe« (‘Case Histories’), Primo Levi’s »Ist das ein Mensch?« (‘If This Is a Man’), Walter Benjamin’s »Denkbilder« [Thought-Images], Klaus Theweleit’s »Männerphantasien (‘Male Fantasies’), Georges Didi-Huberman’s »Bilder trotz allem« (‘Images in Spite of All’), Claude Lanzman’s documentary film »Shoah«, and W.G. Sebald’s novel »Austerlitz«. The result of my research is an experimental book that portrays the multidimensional nature, polyphony and complexity of the subject, and offers the readers an opportunity to deal with the material in the way they desire, and perhaps to make it useful for their own work and research.

sv
Genom experimentellt skrivande och konceptuellt fotografi använder jag i min doktorsavhandling mina personliga erfarenheter för att undersöka konsekvenserna av de samhälleliga omvandlingsprocesserna i DDR, Tyska demokratiska republiken. Fokus ligger på det sena 1990-talets och det tidiga 1990-talets samhällsomvandlingar i Östtyskland som på tyska kallas ”die Wendezeit”. Ämnet har tidigare framförallt behandlats av forskare inom historia och kulturvetenskap. Bidragen från konstnärlig forskning har hittills varit få. I min forskning vill jag synliggöra orsaker till de många våldsutbrott som skedde parallellt med denna radikala samhällsomvandling. Målet med min avhandling är att bidra med ett kritiskt vittnesmål om den tystnad som kringgärdar dessa våldsamma sidoeffekter av den samhällsomvandling som i Tyskland kallas ”die Wende”. Med utgångspunkt i min egen historia visar avhandlingen hur tre generationer av medborgare påverkades, både som grupper och individer, av auktoritära regimer och samhällsstrukturer. I avhandlingens experimentella berättande behandlas utbrott av meningslöst våld som sidoeffekter av en omstörtande transformation och som ambivalenta situationer där de olika aktörerna uppfattar sig själva som både förövare och offer. Då personliga minnen och historiska dokument fungerade som utgångspunkt i min konstnärliga forskning, har huvudutmaningarna varit att urskilja generaliserbara aspekter av personliga erfarenheter och att experimentera med olika textformer och fotografiska format för att hitta ett adekvat sätt att presentera forskningens material på. Några viktiga inspirationskällor är Alexander Kluges Lebensläufe (’Personakter’), Primo Levis Ist das ein Mensch? (’Är detta en människa?’), Walter Benjamins Denkbilder (Tankebilder), Klaus Theweleits Männerphantasien (’Mansfantasier’), Georges Didi-Hubermans Bilder trotz allem (Bilder trots allt), Claude Lanzmans dokumentärfilm Shoah, och W.G. Sebalds roman Austerlitz. Utkomsten av min forskning är en experimentell bok som åskådliggör ämnets komplexitet, och dess multi-dimensionella och polyfona karaktär. Det är ett arbete som ger läsarna möjlighet att ta del av materialet på de sätt de själva önskar, och att använda det i sina egna praktiker.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsexperimental writing, conceptual photography, non-linear storytelling, process of transformation, acts of violence, GDR, German reunification
date31/10/2022
published14/03/2023
last modified14/03/2023
statuspublished
share statusprivate
copyrightKai Ziegner
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1779420/1891313
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/vis.1779420
published inVIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
portal issue9. VIS Issue 9


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