Travertine, a monumental building, a glass rotunda and never-ending corridors: the IG-Farben Haus designed by Hans Pölzig is now the home of the humanities at Goethe University Frankfurt. It was built for the association of German chemical companies IG Farben that not only profited under National Socialism, but also actively participated in forced labor and the extermination industry with the first privately financed concentration camp, Auschwitz Monowitz III, the performance of human experiments and the supply of Zyklon B for the gas chambers in Auschwitz Birkenau. Since the university's move, disputes have been taking place about how to deal with the history of the building and the NS-past of the University itself. The interdisciplinary project "Staging IG-Farben Building" asks about the presence and absence of history(s), current politics of remembering and forgetting and the significance of today's knowledge production in this complex structure.
On view will be performances and installations created by nine students of the Institute for Theater-, Film- and Media Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt that approach the historical constellations in different ways, starting from the building: What happens when a structure of knowledge production bases itself in a structure in which decisions to produce death were made? What does the university's renewed interest in remembrance after years of ignorance mean for critical interruptions? And how can performative approaches contribute to these socio-political debates? The one-day event is the result of a half-year art-research project that began with a research seminar on the history of the building led by Nikolaus Müller-Schöll (Goethe University Frankfurt), a guest seminar on site-specific performance art conducted by Daphna Ben-Shaul (Tel Aviv University) and an artistic working phase instructed by Diego Rotman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Sala-manca Group).
Curation & Dramaturgy: Diego Rotman | Curation and Dramaturgy Assistance: Luise Besier| Research & Concept: Nikolaus Müller-Schöll | Technic: Anton Svoboda | Production Management: Mirjam Narani
Works by: Vera Boitcova, Sara Gabor, Mira Gebhardt, Christian Grall, Elinor Hasselberg, Hannaleena Hauru, S. C. Lee-Jeong, Jean Maurer, Ann-Kathrin Pfahler, Christy Poinsettia Ma, Stefanie Oberhoff, Helga Làzàr, Walter Solon, Jorge Loureiro, Karl Dietrich, Emil Riedel, Joseph Defan
