Aram Bartholl – Blog

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Stumbling Blocks / Stolpersteine

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Since I blog quite a lot about “street”-art I would like to point out one of my favorite public art projects (which is maybe not so well known out of germany/europe). This is beyond the current streetart-craze …

As an ongoing project the german artist Gunter Demnig is installing since 1994 “Stolpersteine” (Stumbling Blocks) as individual locative mini-memorials for the Holocaust victims in Germany during the second World War. Each 8 by 8 cm brass plate installed in the pavement represents a woman, man or child which has been deported by the Nazis from that specific location (house) to one of the concentration camps. More than 15.000 of these “Stolpersteine” (Stumbling Blocks) were installed in Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Hungaria since 1994. A documentation of this ongoing work will be shown in November 2008.

Actually words fail me to express how much I like this project. But “Stolpersteine” (Stumbling Blocks) shows in a very good way how to remember individual victims of that horrible time in our day to day life. There would be a lot more to say …

more info
“Stolpersteine” – Wikipedia
“Holocaust” – Wikipedia
Offical site (german)
Upcoming movie documentation article (german)

(pic found again on Gipsstr. Berlin)

Written by Aram

August 15th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

Posted in other projects

2 Responses to 'Stumbling Blocks / Stolpersteine'

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  1. I remember being impressed by these blocks when I first ran across them in Berlin. I had never heard of them before seeing them in situ, and the impact was considerable.

    Marius

    16 Aug 08 at 12:53 am

  2. Yes, this is really impressing project, connecting art and history in the best way…

    I found also many of these Stolpersteine here.

    Der Merzmensch

    18 Aug 08 at 12:13 pm

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