Summerhouse - Geertje Brandenburg
Recently I found myself unearthing the letters my grandfather wrote in 2000. They retell his time as a forced labourer in Germany between 1943 and 1945. As my eyes move through them, I feel those memories are my own. I recognise myself in them, In the people, the locations and emotions they crystallised. I find myself retracing his steps, re-working his memories, unable to avoid wondering how much of these letters, of him, outlives in me. Have I inherited something else besides my name? Tentatively and curiously, I am suggesting that, in some ways, my grandfather and I share parts of each other. We are the same story. This (re)living of our experiences is a way to give meaning to my family experiences. Through cutting open, examining and reassembling them, I am (re)creating an unknown past that is also mine. Cutting can be an act of aggression, but it is also generative; for healing and regrowth. These collages are keeping untold memories that I cannot entirely separate from. Memories that, although oscillate between facts and fictions, hold warm and real truths. I, as a Brandenburg, am enmeshed between the story of others. And through cutting, pasting, scaling and transforming different archives, I create places where different moments and people (still) live. See more
| Size: | 18 x 24 cm |
|---|---|
| Designer: | Andreea Peterfi |
| Edition: | 80 |
| Other Details: | IBO |
| Place: | Rotterdam, NL |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Publisher: | Self-Published |
| Printer: | de Raddraaier |