Art as Counter-Archive: Documenting Violence in the Era of Post-Truth Politics

Contemporary artists have used, critiqued and re-interpreted existing archives. They become archivists themselves – creating new archives as counter-archives. The exhibition gives space to artists seeing their works as a contribution to documenting, investigating and collecting memories and material witnesses of violence and trauma. The works situate memories within the framework of time-based knowledge shaped by power relations and illustrate how cultural techniques such as sound, architecture, photography and sculpture turn into storage and voices of past injustice.

Exhibition tours
26 September 2025, 4–5 p.m. Exhibition tour with curator Lisa Deml
27 September 2025, 3–4 p.m. Exhibition tour with Anna Norpoth and Felix Fuhg, Körber-Stiftung eCommemoration

In the presence of participating artists, we will explore the Art as Counter-Archive exhibition and discuss different approaches and forms of investigative art. No registration required.

Forensic Architecture(FA) and Forensis use techniques in spatial analysis and digital modelling to investigate state and corporate violence, environmental destruction, and colonial legacies. In collaboration with indigenous Ovaherero and Nama groups, the two agencies have undertaken a multi-year investigation into the genocide perpetrated by German colonial forces in Namibia during the first years of the 20th century. Connecting this violent history to contemporary instances of state violence in Germany and Palestine, their ongoing research is presented across a series of films, an installation, and a panel discussion.

Qusay Awad is a Berlin-based architect and multimedia artist working at the intersection of spatial and archival research and audiovisual practice. Through site-responsive installations, Awad’s practice explores themes of violence and remembrance. While constructing counter-memories, he examines how re-narrating spaces can bear witness to history. His artistic methods include 3D and sound design, video, field recording, performance and sculpture. His works have been presented at institutions and festivals including SAVVY Contemporary, Maxim Gorki Theater, CTM Festival, B7L9 Art Centre and many more.

Pierre Larauza, co-founder of the Belgian-based contemporary dance company t.r.a.n.s.i.t.s.c.a.p.e, is a multidisciplinary artist working on individual and collective projects performed or exhibited worldwide in the areas of performing arts, visual arts and architecture. His installation and sculpture work is deeply rooted in reality, which he describes as ‘documentary sculpture’.

The media art and research collective Total Viewwas founded in 2024 by the artist trio Ferdinand Doblhammer, Ulrich Formann and the Futile Corporation to develop new digital methods for investigating state repression and forced cultural assimilation. The collective functions as an interdisciplinary hub for exchange between artists, journalists and researchers. Total View collaborates with institutions such as the University of Vienna and the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Lighthouse Reports is an independent, non-profit, European-based investigative media collective. The organisation works across borders, collaborating with leading international media outlets to expose hidden stories. Its thematic priorities include migration, climate change, corruption, disinformation, financial flows, and surveillance technologies. Lighthouse Reports combines traditional journalistic research methods with data journalism, open-source intelligence, forensic analysis and visual evidence to work in an interdisciplinary manner.

Lisa Deml [she/her] is an independent curator and writer based in Berlin. Since March 2025, she is artistic co-director of Halle für Kunst Lüneburg together with Marie-Sophie Dorsch.

Anna Norpoth is a literary scholar with particular expertise in the materiality of literary language. Felix Fuhg is a curator, museologist and historian interested in pop history and formats which explore an experience of the past. Together they curate Körber-Stiftung's eCommemoration programme.