ARTISTS TALK

On the occasion of World Aids Day, Anne von Fallois (German AIDS Foundation) and artist Tom Fecht explore their collaborative project NAMES and STONES as a social sculpture (Denkraum: Namen und Steine 1992 – 2025). A major installation of this European Mémoire nomade is on display at the Hamburger Bahnhof since 1996.

First presented at Jan Hoet’s Documenta IX in 1992 as an homage to the creative community of artists who were among the first to go courageously public with their HIV infection, it successively expanded into over 40 permanent and temporary installations and finally transformed into a European network of local memorials for the victims of the Aids pandemic. Still active and expanding by annual additions of name-stones to public and museum installations over the past 33 years, these memorials anchored themselves in the urban fabric of social networks and contemporary mourning culture. Stemming from Land Art, this expansive epitaph is regarded today as the European equivalent to the American Quilt Memorial. Dealing with wounded love and death in a multi-layered work, theses installations continue to challenge our broader understanding of public health, universally rooted in body culture and embedded in inseparable social links to art and culture.

Accompanied by visuals, the artist talk will be moderated by Dr. Sven Beckstette, curator at the contemporary collection of the National Gallery.

HAMBURGER BAHNHOF
National Gallery Berlin
Invalidenstraße 50
10557 Berlin
Germany