U-HAFT QUEDLINGBURG – Backstage

U-HAFT QUEDLINGBURG – Backstage
U-HAFT QUEDLINBURG - All about Love - x/120 - 2024
U-HAFT QUEDLINBURG – All about Love – x/120 – 2024

This is the story behind the story behind a series for the international social art project ARTSURPRISE.EU. It is the story of a prison, the story of two men (both hero’s for me), working voluntarily as guides for this place, the story of the making-of of the series and the story of rejecting an offer to use contemporary art to rise more attention for this location and the people behind.

I dedicate this series to my father. The 6th of October 2024 was his birthday (88 years). And what connects him to this series is his never ending love for people. Thank you for that.

U-HAFT QUEDLINBURG - all about love - the guided tour - 03
U-HAFT QUEDLINBURG – all about love – the guided tour – 03

At all times people have done evil to other people. Many people were imprisoned innocently. So-called republic refugees were also imprisoned in the prison in Quedlinburg. These were people who simply wanted to leave the country (back then the German Democratic Republic GDR). In the prison in Quedlinburg, 8 people had to share a cell of less than 20 square meters. To the left of the cell door there was a bucket of water, to the right a bucket without. That was it, there were no toilets.

The windows – if any at all – were covered outside with wooden boxes. This meant, that the light would only fall into the box from above. And that meant, that the prisoners could not see anything outside, no tree, no house, no horizon. This prison was used like this until 1970. We are talking about Germany, about Europe. It is actually unimaginable. Now some people are worried again that the saber-rattling and the desire for war will lead to unjust things being done to people again. So it makes sense to remember those who suffered such injustice.

How did they survive? How will we survive?

U-HAFT QUEDLINBURG - all about love - the guided tour - 02
U-HAFT QUEDLINGURG – all about love – the guided tour – 02

I documented the drawings scratched into the plaster of the cells (i was the only one!). Behind every drawing there is a human. In every drawing there is a message. It is difficult to decipher this message, but one thing is certain: it was the power of love that gave space for confidence that kept these people alive.

When I was invited to a tour of the pre-trial detention facility for the first time, I thought of my family, crushed between the world wars in Europe. I thought of all the people who were wrongfully imprisoned and still are.

No, I don’t want to judge. I can’t decide what is right or wrong. Freedom is our greatest asset as people, as citizens. If officials in a state allow themselves to be empowered to deny this freedom, they would do well to make wise decisions.

But the decision-makers are themselves trapped in the systems and dependents. Fear is the key to understanding what is really happening.

This was also the case in the former GDR, young people who saw no future in East Germany. If they were caught trying to flee from the East to the West, they were locked up with the serious criminals, thieves and murderers. The pre-trial detention facility in Quedlinburg was a first stop for these inmates.

During this tour, I recognized the importance of this place. And I noticed a particular melancholy, which was also due to the fact that two people had taken on this place for very personal reasons.
I listened carefully to the two guides as they told me how difficult it is to generate attention for the topic, how little interest the city of Quedlinburg and its current representatives had, and how little support there was from teachers and schools in the area. Nobody was interested in the history, which was also part of their own history.

U-HAFT QUEDLINBURG - all about love - the guided tour - 01
U-HAFT QUEDLINBURG – all about love – the guided tour – 01

I suggested preparing a concept in which I wanted to describe the possibilities of contemporary art to generate more attention for this place and for the matter close to the hearts of these two guides.
I presented the concept in autumn 2024.

As part of the tour of the site, there should be a room in which artists from all over the world would be invited to show exhibits of their work. These exhibits should be an artistic response to the site, its inmates, its history and, in general, the history of mankind and humanity. I was sure that I would be able to inspire many artists to do this on a regular basis.
At the end of the tour, visitors should also have the opportunity to come into contact with these artists in one way or another.

The two guides liked my idea, but the management of the site did not. It rejected the concept – until further notice as of October 8, 2024.

On the one hand, my suggestion was about the social – political relevance of the site. On the other hand, I was also concerned with these two men who so often lead people through this exhibition and actually also a little through their own lives. The fact, that people, who were themselves wrongfully imprisoned take it upon themselves to keep such a place of remembrance open commands my respect. This civic engagement cannot be valued highly enough.

So I thought about an adequate answer. And how different can an answer from a contemporary artist be, he answers in and with his art.

It is a long story how the works of art in this series came about. This story began in 2019, with an exhibition with the theme “all about love”. Before that, I had invited people in different countries to paint together. Many works were created, some painted by 6 or more people together in an intensive work process, on canvas, 80 x 60 cm in size.

I had given out thin plywood sheets as work aids. The colors were mixed on top of these before application. In the end, I collected the works. They have been shown in many places in Europe.

But I also collected these plywood sheets. I knew the day would come when I would need them.

Today was that day: October 6, 2024.

I was looking for an artistic answer to the rejection of an exhibition in the remand prison in the street Weberstrasse in Quedlinburg (Germany). Today I found it.

I took a lot of photos there during the guided tour in summer 2024. I had also taken photos of the plaster on the door panels. I saw drawings there, probably scratched into them. I saw the will, even under these circumstances, to express oneself creatively, to communicate.

These references to the people who had been incarcerated at that time (the pre-trial detention center in Quedlinburg was used from 1847 to 1970) had probably not been noticed by anyone. I thought they were important even then during the guided tour.

u-haft quedlinburg - making of - series artsurprise 01
u-haft quedlinburg – making of – series artsurprise 01

I digitally transformed one of these scratches and made a stamp out of it. I divided the plywood panels into small areas, approx. 60 mm x 40 mm.

u-haft quedlinburg - making of - series artsurprise 02
u-haft quedlinburg – making of – series artsurprise 02

The edges were cleaned and painted orange. Then each piece was stamped.

The plywood panels, painting aids in the art events surrounding the “all about love” project, bore the colors that are on the works of art created at that time. The authors of the works had previously meditated on the topic of love… and only then painted together.

u-haft quedlinburg - making of - series artsurprise 05

All the feelings of the inmates of this pre-trial detention center cannot be put into words, and probably not into works of art either. But one can remember something that miraculously connects these people in Weberstrasse in Quedlinburg and their will to survive with the authors of the pictures from the “all about love” project: love.

I don’t know how this story continues. This article is just a document of the times. But this artistic answer has been put into the world. And it is also a symbol of my bow to these two guides, a bow in humility.
Blessed is he who remembers his story, and blessed is he who draws attention to what is also part of his own story.

Further links: this series in Artsurprise | the concept (PDF) | U-HAFT on Wikipedia