Memory: Who remembers? Which persons or which events are remembered? Where and in what form is remembrance taking place?

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These are the important questions we have to ask ourselves if we want to analyse the interpretation and teaching of historical events. These are questions that show that people with disabilities and their perspectives on the narrative of the past and their ability to experience it are often excluded.

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By signing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008, Germany committed itself to the goal of demanding an inclusive / accessible society in all areas of life. The aim of Denk.mal Inklusiv is to draw attention to the voids in memory with regard to disability and also to investigate the questions of inclusion.

A group of inclusion experts and artists with and without disabilities have been working together from July to December 2019 under the motto "Denk.mal Inklusiv". Formats have been developed in this collaboration that strengthen the possibilities of participation within discourses of remembrance culture. For this purpose, the participants and visual artists have jointly developed workshops that offer possibilities to reclaim public space. For example, the techniques of stencil or ad-busting were transformed into new, accessible formats, which were finally offered as part of the visitors' programme on the Day of the open monument in Berlin. The exhibition presents the results of this debate.

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The artist duo Various & Gould also address the theme of memory and its manifestation in urban space in their exhibition Keine Ewigkeit für Niemand (no eternity for nobody).

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For Various&Gould, one of the most important experiences in working in public space is that one should not only oppose transience, but also acknowledge it as a quality. The duo transfers the impermanence as a constant working theme to their current artistic examination of monuments. For almost 15 years, the two have been an integral part of Berlin's urban art scene, tackling major social issues in a playful, varied and colourful way.

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In their series City Skins, for example, they deal with monuments in public space and address their transience with large-format impressions that offer new projection possibilities like a second skin of the monument. At the same time, current canvas works and prints as well as the book "Permanently Improvised - 15 Years of Urban Print Collage", which was just published in October, are presented in the context of the exhibition. Keine Ewigkeit für Niemand shows how the techniques tested in Denk.mal Inklusiv become works of art. The exhibition was also developed according to accessibility standards and attempts to appeal to all the senses of the visitors.

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(exhibition text, Annika Hirsekorn)