Field Trip "Art and Dilemma 24"

Date

September 18th/19th, 2024

Life is full of contradictions and leads to tangible dilemma situations in which there seems to be no right or wrong. Sometimes you are wiser when the extent of your own decision has become clear and part of the collective memory. How much guilt can you bear?
On the excursion “Art and Dilemma 24”, the Borderland artists got to know professions who have dealt and still deal with the simultaneity of moral contradictions in very different ways: an artist, who was educated in the years of National Socialism, a former Air Force Member, the dead soldier, an airport management...

September 18th

The post-pandemic period is characterized by so-called "multiple crises" and simple solutions are not obvious. Whether climate change, wars, delayed structural reforms or increasing hostility towards democracy... A nationalist-populist wind is blowing through Europe.

History repeats?

The field trip provided an insight into the origins of the European Union, which can be experienced in many dimensions along the German-Dutch border between Bedburg-Hau, Venray and Weeze. The focus was on an airport: yesterday a military airport for the British liberators, today a launch pad for holidaymakers, a temporary storage facility for refugees, a location for the arms industry, alternative energy production and various festivals. The tour began with a current research report on Beuys and his relationship to National Socialism at Museum Schloss Moyland, continued at the military history Royal Airforce Museum and went on the next day in Ysselsteyn, Germany's largest war cemetery memorial on Dutch soil.

September 19th

The Ysselsteyn-team took the Borderland group on a tour along the graves, where over 30,000 war dead are buried. Most of them are German soldiers, but a closer look reveals that people from a wide variety of nations and backgrounds fought in the German army. Their fates show that it is difficult to explain the past in terms of simple opposites such as right and wrong: The winners are not always the good guys, the losers not necessarily the wrong ones. The boundaries between right and wrong prove to be blurred, unclear and unstable. Perpetrators and victims can be found on both sides, often united in one and the same person...

The trip finally ended with a bike tour and an inspiring visit of Agata Siwek´s studio in Evertsoord. Thank you Agata! By the way unforgettable: cashcows, bowling (congratulations Hasmik!) and a wonderful weather.