Echoes of Tomorrow: Season Opening 2024/25

“Culture of remembrance” refers to a society’s collective knowledge of its own past. “Memory politics” describes the process of negotiating what is forgotten and what is remem- bered and thus becomes part of the culture of remembrance. With the season opening ECHOES OF TOMORROW, Kampnagel enters the field of tension between these areas and becomes an artistic echo chamber between past, present and future. In view of the global shift to the right and increasingly polarized political debates, it is more important than ever to emphasize the diversity of German and European history and identity and to create space for a multi-perspective examination of the past and its impact on the present and future. During the two-week opening of the season, we will therefore present artistic works and discourse formats that shed light on the crimes committed under National Socialism (including on the Kampnagel site), look respectfully at the experiences of persecuted groups and focus on stories of political and artistic resistance. Alongside the plea for a dignified (German) culture of remembrance are projects that take a critical look at the European, white and normative cultural canon and a long history of racist performance and exhibition practices. Formats that focus on recent German history ultimately point to the genesis of the crisis-ridden and violent present, which is characterised by social inequality, an increasing normalisation of right-wing violence, anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny and queer hostility – and ultimately an increasingly divisive left. It is also about searching for spaces of collective mourning and coping in art.