Shared Memory – Talk on “The Missing House” (1990) by Christian Boltanski

At the centre of the work are the people who lived in the central part of the former house between 1930 and 1945. Many of them were Jewish, were dispossessed and deported to concentration camps. Others died in a bombing raid in the final phase of the Second World War.


24 plaques on the two firewalls of the gap indicate the names, professions and periods of time in which the people lived here. Both the artwork and the gap between the buildings are a powerful reminder of the Holocaust and the Second World War and are now listed as a historical monument.


Boltanski developed the work for the exhibition project Die Endlichkeit der Freiheit Berlin 1990. Now The Missing House is part of the Hamburger Bahnhof's Endless Exhibition with permanent works of art throughout the museum grounds and the neighbourhood. In conversation with Sarah Alberti, Christiane Büchner remembers the collaboration with Christian Boltanski in 1990 and Stefanie Endlich puts the discourse on art in public space into context.


Dr Sarah Alberti (art historian and journalist) in conversation with Christiane Büchner (author and director, former assistant to Christian Boltanski) and Prof. Dr Stefanie Endlich (publicist, honorary professor for art in public space at the University of the Arts).

• Location: Forum Hamburger Bahnhof
  
• The talk will be held in German.
  
• Free admission. No registration required.