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Franziska Windolf

Meet The Memory Person

Please visit https://www.memoryperson.com/en for detailed info, newsletter and updates!


Project Trailer, 2025. 03:22 min. 'Munich Originals Revisited' - Performance 'Meet the Memory Person' in Giesing (Munich), 2023. 12:34 min. Meet the Ústí nad Labem Memory Persons - City Walk, 2024. 12:00 min.

The Memory Person: A Performative Monument to Migrant and Exiled Creative Individuals

In 2023 and 2024, The Memory Person, a public figure embodied by different performers, served as a unique and interactive pu

blic art installation in the Giesing district of Munich. This ongoing project aims to preserve and celebrate the memories of exiled creative individuals from various backgrounds, fostering a connection between the past, present, and future.

Collecting and Sharing Memories and Stories

The Memory Person engaged with current residents of Giesing in the public space to collect personal memories and stories. Participants learned about workshops in open calls, where they created mementos that materialized their experiences and memories in portable multimedia objects. These creations, now for public display in the digital Open Archive and the expandable catalog, highlight the often-overlooked contributions of exiled and migrant creative individuals to the cultural and social fabric of the city.

A Walking Monument

Revisiting Karl Valentins Münchner Originale and iconic Reklamemensch, the Memory Person displays the mementos and poetic dedications on their clothing during public and interactive walks through the neighborhood. These items serve as visual cues, prompting conversations and exchanges with passersby. In return for sharing their memories and experiences, residents received one of these mementos, creating a tangible connection to the project and fostering a shared history. 

A Polyphonic Approach to Commemoration

The Memory Person challenges traditional notions of commemoration by connecting different events, localities, perspectives and experiences. The project aims to create a more inclusive and multifaceted understanding of memory culture, enacted by sharing the memory and collecting the mementos.

A Continuing Journey

The project travelled to Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, in October and December 2024 for an artist residency. The thematic focus was Identity and Family History in the Sudetenland.


A performative monument by Alexey Yevets | Anick Messerschmitt | Dmitrii Ostrtsov | Eliza Kokeyan | Elvin Turgut | Emver Retzep Oglou | Franziska Windolf with quotations paraphrasing Adnan Al-Dhahir, Haydar Isik, Ivan Binar, Milorad Vujovic, Wladimir Nikolajewitsch Woinowitsch | Halina Prakapenka | Hammoud Radwan | Hanna Vasina | Iriet Yusuf | Iriet Yusuf and her primary school children in Giesing | Kathrin Knöpfle | Katja Kushnir | Ksenia Bykovsky | Leonid Hrytsak | Liana Chernetska | Maisoun Alfarawati | Manuel Friedrich | Mariam Monga | Matyáš Slabý & Barbora Šubrotová & Jakub Klimeš | Mehmet “Schlosser” | Miriam Worek | Natalia Shynkarova | Nicolas Wannenmacher | Olena Mytko | Pepi | Ping-Pong group | Polina Nagurnaia | Seb | Selin Julia Sissiyo | Simona Pekařová | smadlmachts | Sudipa Roy | Su Turhan | Viktoriia Ivasyshyna | Some, who wish to remain anonymous. 

Meet The Memory Person - a performative monument
2023-ongoing
Artistic concept: Franziska Windolf
Curation: Mareike Schwarz, 2023
Interactive walks: 01.06.23, 3pm; 04.06.23, 12am; 11.06.23, 3pm; 13.06.23, 4pm; 19.06.23, 5pm; 24.06.23, 12am; 30.07.24, 6pm; 10.08.24, 3pm; 11.08.24, 3pm; 12.08.24, 6pm; 30.08.24, 6pm; 31.08.24, 3pm (all Munich-Giesing) | 04.12.2024, 5pm (Ústí nad Labem)
Workshops: 14.05.23 @ Kulturzentrum Gorod, Munich; 12.11.2023 @ FLORIDA Lothringer 13, Munich; 15.06.24, 22.06.24, 29.06.24, 06.07.24 @ 103er Freizeitreff, Munich-Giesing; 02.12.24 @ Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem Faculty of Art and Design
Open Archive and publication
Performers: Franziska Windolf, Jegor Kondratyuk, Konouz Saeed, Lisavieta Bogushevskaya, Polina Khatsenka, Simone Kokou, Viviana Iacob

Catalog Meet The Memory Person in German and English language, 2024
Looking to the future with joy by Magdalena Wisniowska, 2025
static Vol. 3 No. 1, 2024
gd:c newsletter, 2024
Video documentation by Mathias Reitz Zausinger, 12:35 min, 2023 

Supported by BBK Munich and Upper Bavaria (2023), Department of Culture of the State Capital Munich, Migration Council of the State Capital Munich, District Committee 17 Obergiesing - Fasangarten of the State Capital Munich (all 2024). This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 724649-METROMOD). This project was developed within Franziska Windolf’s fellowship at the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect and was initiated by the ERC project ‘Relocating Modernism: Global Metropolises, Modern Art and Exile (METROMOD)’ (2023).


Photo credits: Milena Wojhan, Sandra Singh, Leonid Hrytsak


Memory Person during city walk. Performer: Simone Kokou. The Giesing district in Munich, 2023. Photograph: Milena Wojhan. Close-up Memory Person. Textile memento by Olena Mytko combined with a brass memento in Russian by Franziska Windolf, with a quote paraphrasing Wladimir Nikolajewitsch Woinowitsch: 'To those, for whom the opening of borders does not mean returning home.' Giesing, 2023. Photograph: Milena Wojhan. The Memory Person shares a postcard illustration of Karl Valentin's 'Reklamemenschen' with the audience during the interactive city walk. Perfomer: Konouz Saeed. Munich Giesing, 2024. Photograph: Sandra Singh. Participants f.l.t.r. Eliza Kokeyan, Mariam Monga, Mareike Schwarz, Viktoriia Ivavsyshyna, Olena Mytko, Natalia Shynkarova, Franziska Windolf. Memory Person workshop at GOROD e.V. in Munich, 2023. Photograph: Leonid Hrytsak. Memory Person with memento by Nicholas Wannenmacher. Performer: Kathrin Knöpfle. Munich, 2024. Photograph: Sandra Singh. Memory Person and Bogdan in the backyard of Weißenseestraße 7. Performer: Simone Kokou. Giesing, 2023. Photograph: Milena Wojhan. Memory Person with mementos by Viktoriia Ivasyshyna, Maisoun Alfarawati, Katja Kushnir, Moss, Franziska Windolf with quotations after Wladimir Woinowitsch and Ivan Binar. Munich Giesing, 2024. Photograph: Sandra Singh. Memory Person with audience during the interactive city walk. Performer: Kathrin Knöpfle. East Cemetery Munich, 2024. Photograph: Sandra Singh. Meeting and networking with artists and residents at Alpenplatz. Performer: Franziska Windolf. Munich Giesing, 2023. Photograph: Leonid Hrytsak. Memento by Franziska Windolf with a quote in Kurdish paraphrasing Haydar Isik: 'To Those, whose longing grows stronger the older they get.' Munich, 2023. Photograph: Leonid Hrytsak. Memory Person showing a picture of the former home of the artist couple Anna and Julius Ziegelmann, who resisted National Socialism in Giesing together with like-minded people. Performer: Kathrin Knöpfle. Munich, 2024. Photograph: Sandra Singh. Audience during the interactive city walk, learning about the mementos that the Memory Person carries on their body. Munich, 2024. Photograph: Sandra Singh. Memory Person Kathrin Knöpfle with her memento 'BRIDE TO ORDER.' Munich, 2024. Photograph: Sandra Singh. Get together with Memory Person and audience after the city walk. Performer: Kathrin Knöpfle. Wettersteinplatz Giesing, 2024. Photograph: Sandra Singh.



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