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MEET THE MEMORY PERSON
City walk. Performer: Simone Kokou. The Giesing district in Munich, 2023. Image: Milena Wojhan. Close-up. Memory Person with mementoes. Performer: Simone Kokou. Giesing, 2023. Mementoes (f.t.t.b.): Natalia Shynkarova (headgear), Anick Messerschmidt ('The Open Eye'), Smadlmachts ('Dahoam'), Eliza Kokeyan ('Heart'), Memento in textile after Ivan Binar, Memento in Chilean after Juvenal Morales Flores, Memento in brass after Mirolad Vujovic, Mariam Monga (hat), Nataliia Shynkarova ('Signs Of The Way'). Giesing, 2023. Image: Milena Wojhan. City Walk. Performer: Franziska Windolf. Weißenseepark Giesing, Munich. Image: Milena Wojhan. Close-up. Textile Memento by Mariam Monga. Giesing, 2023. Image: Milena Wojhan. Close-up. 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. Image: Milena Wojhan. Performance participant carrying textile memento by Viktoriia Ivasyshyna combined with a brass memento in Montenegrin by Franziska Windolf with a quote paraphrasing Mirolad Vujovic : 'To those, whose mother tongue is the invisible companion of the soul.' Giesing, 2023. Image: Milena Wojhan. Video still. The Memory Person invites participant to carry mementos during the performance. Performer: Viviana Iacob. Giesing, 2023. Image: Mathias Reitz Zausinger. Encountering Mr Mohamed, who wanted to contribute his embroidery to the monument (see yellow embroidery on T-shirt). Performer: Franziska Windolf. Giesing, 2023. Image: Leonid Hrytsak. The artist Nicolas Wannenmacher contributes his 'Blast From The Past' mementoes. Performer: Simone Kokou. Walchsenseeplatz Giesing, 2023. Image: Milena Wojhan. Table tennis match with Elvin Turgut at Rheinthalerstraße. Performer: Franziska Windolf. Giesing, 2023. Image: Leonid Hrytsak. Pepi writing down her dedication to the Performative Monument at McDonald's on Tegernseer Landstraße. Performer: Franziska Windolf. Giesing, 2023. Image: Leonid Hrytsak. Blast From The Past memento by Nicolas Wannenmacher. The slide comes from a photo collection of a former housemate. Nicolas W. saved the collection from the rubbish tip and projects the slides onto the glass front of his studio at Walchenseeplatz at night. Giesing, 2023. Image: Milena Wojhan. Memento by the Ping-Pong group, mainly consisting of Iranian and Vietnamese table tennis players. They invited the Memory Person to barbecue, to join their club and conversation. Unfortunately, the group disbanded for unknown reasons in July 2023. According to coach Patrick, the round shape of the ball connects to the core of the human being. It can be damaged in life but remains recognizable to oneself and others if one listens to the soul. A match can have creative-therapeutic effects and dissolve aggression and emotional blockages. Image: Leonid Hrytsak. Pepi's memento. Her dedication says in Serbian: 'Kаквото правите, то правите от серце!' In English: 'Whatever you do, do it from the heart!' (Translation by Pepi). Image: Leonid Hrytsak. Meeting and networking with artists and residents at Alpenplatz. Performer: Franziska Windolf. Giesing, 2023. Image: Leonid Hrytsak. Iriet Yusuf and her primary school pupils from Giesing contributing their Lion memento. According to the resilience trainer, it symbolizes inner strength and positive togetherness, consisting of thank-you letters and pictures from pupils and parents from different countries and cultures. Performer: Franziska Windolf. Giesing, 2023. Image: Leonid Hrytsak. Video still. Performer: Viviana Iacob. Giesing, 2023. Image: Mathias Reitz Zausinger. Video stills. Performer Viviana Iacob explains the concept of 'Amanat' to passer-by Joudy. Text on stills: "If a person really feels connected to our cause, we give them one of these brooches. | The concept is that this object is something you take care of (...)." Giesing, 2023. Image: Mathias Reitz Zausinger. Selfie with Bogdan in the backyard of Weißenseestraße 7. Performer: Simone Kokou. Giesing, 2023. Image: Milena Wojhan. Video still. A memento is given to a passer-by Joudy. Parts of the monument are distributed throughout the neighborhood and the memory is shared with different people. Giesing, 2023. Image: Mathias Reitz Zausinger.


City-Walk, selection of sites

A mural at Silberhornstraße 6. In 2020, the associations Real and Soziale Stadt Giesing, publicly called on people to propose symbols of Giesing for the wall design. The Giesing legend Hans Steyrer was one of the favorites for the design; he was one of the 'Munich Originals' who inspired the Memory Person. The performative monument updates the question of who is a 'Munich original' today and in the future. Performer: Simone Kokou. Giesing, 2023. Image: Milena Wojhan. War memorial by Hans Lindl, built in 1929. The Giesing Denk(t)mal initiative led by the artist Wolfram P. Kastner has demanded a redesign of the memorial. Performer: Elisavieta Bogushevskaya. Giesing, 2023. Image: Mathias Reitz Zausinger. Video stills. The Memory Person goes in search of the exile and migration stories of former employees of the Agfa factory and their families. After the war, Agfa recruited numerous guest workers. In the years leading up to its insolvency in 2008, parts of the company premises were handed over to the Bavarian state, and a home for asylum seekers was set up in Untersbergstraße. Performer: Viviana Iacob. Untersbergstraße Giesing, 2023. Text on stills: 'What is interesting about these buildings is that they were part of the Agfa premises. | In the 1990s, when the Agfa business was no longer so successful | the government turned the building into a home for asylum seekers.' Performer: Viviana Iacob. Untersbergstraße Giesing, 2023. Images: Mathias Reitz Zausinger. Video stills. During the Second World War, Agfa ran a satellite camp of KZ Dachau in Weißenseestraße, where forced laborers were imprisoned. Text on stills: "This is our last stop here. | During the Second World War, the Agfa Kamerawerk was located here, | and used as a satellite camp, a forced labor camp. | Unfortunately, there is no public sign of remembrance here." Performer: Elisavieta Bogushevskaya. Weißenseestraße Giesing, 2023. Image: Mathias Reitz Zausinger. Searching for traces at Weinbauernstraße 9. In the 1820s, the Dick family from the Palatinate opened the restaurant Zum Weinbauern, where the parish hall of the Luther Church is now located. The restaurant was a popular meeting place for local and travelling intellectuals and artists. From the end of the 1920s, the restaurant served as a clubhouse for the Giesing National Socialists. After 1933, the Reichszeugmeisterei, the NSDAP's largest office building, was built on the adjacent Tegernseer Landstraße. Performer: Simone Kokou. Weinbauernstraße Giesing, 2023. Image: Milena Wojhan.