Archaeological Fiction: Lichtenberg
by Laurie Lax & Lucila MayolIntervention and publication
Lichtenberg Studios, Berlin, DE, 2023
http://lichtenberg-studios.de/2024/07/laurie-lax-lucia-mayol/
TEXSTpress, 2024https://texst.xyz/Fate-of-metal-Fate-of-plastic-Fate-of-o
-
Lichtenberg is a large borough in the east of Berlin. It has many trains, especially in the South, where the tracks create an island called Victoriastadt. Lichtenberg Studios is inside the island, on the upper floor of a Wilhelmian building, which sits on top of a museum. The bedroom is inside the studio. From its windows they could see three tracks that lie beyond the tiny garden, separated only by a thin corrugated wall. Inside the train were anonymous passengers unknowingly observed by the two artists stationed at the two windows.
At Lichtenberg Studios, we were invited to explore the eastern borough of Berlin; Lichtenberg. This included our immediate district, Victoriastadt Bezirk (the island), with all the train tracks and stations surrounding it; the Vietnamese neighbourhood centred around Dong Xuan Center; the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery, where the socialist burial ground is located; Rummelsburg Memorial, a former prison turned into housing; and a church built somewhere between 1230 and 1450, in the shadow of Hohenschönhausen district’s towering post-war buildings.
Meanwhile in the centre of Berlin, near Alexanderplatz and Brandenburger Tor, demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine were taking place; among the first permitted by the German government in November 2023. Some of the demos were additionally motivated by increasing censorship, including the cancellation of cultural events and closure of culture centres. People were arrested for the words on their protest banners. Particular words and phrases were banned from one second to the next. This is the climate in which we were visitors. While gaining a sense of history through our wanderings in former East Berlin, we were compelled into the present by participating in the events outside Lichtenberg.
Archaeological Fiction: Lichtenberg is the second project under the title Archaeological Fiction, which brings together our combined interests in field recording, drawing, coding, research, and oral history. We are both operating in the field of writing as an artistic practice, excited by the possibilities that digital technology allows for this. We explore the layers in time that build a collective perception of a place, asking ourselves: How does the land shape the people and how do people shape the land?
Archaeological Fiction: Lichtenberg
de Laurie Lax & Lucila MayolIntervención y publicación
Lichtenberg Studios, Berlin, DE, 2023
http://lichtenberg-studios.de/2024/07/laurie-lax-lucia-mayol/
TEXSTpress, 2024https://texst.xyz/Fate-of-metal-Fate-of-plastic-Fate-of-o
