Three questions for... Kampnagel

Junior Barros, Sirwan Ali, Alina Buchberger and Nadine Jessen (f.l.t.r.), project team "Forced Labor and Resistance", Kampnagel

The project "Forced Labor and Resistance" aims to make the intertwined history of the Kampnagel cultural site visible: Where did you begin their journey into the past? What stories did you come across?
As the International Center for Fine Arts, it is important to us that artists and visitors know the history of violence that this former factory site carries within it - even though, or even precisely because, it has been used as an art venue for 40 years now. We see the reappraisal of the history of forced laborers at Kampnagel as our anti-fascist mission. The subject has been deliberately suppressed in Germany because it affects so many companies and so little has been repaid. To begin the journey into this history, we asked for support from project partners such as the Museum of Work and the history workshop in Barmbek, from our artistic research team Simone Rozalija Thiele and Sophia Hussain, and also from our audience, our neighborhood. Every single name known to us has been carefully researched in search of the people behind the lists documented by the National Socialists. We heard many stories of sabotage and resistance, camp conditions, factory production, the specific situation of female or Soviet forced laborers, of love and solidarity. But we have learned very little compared to the lives of these 500-plus people. For the Nazis, one means of extermination was also the destruction of the traces of these lives - these gaps have been with us throughout the project and they will never be closed.

Open Jours-Fixes were held every two months as part of the project, where the current state of knowledge of the artistic research team was presented and there was room for suggestions, questions and networking from Hamburg's urban community: What experiences and adventures have you had here?
These open meetings were very well attended and they were an important part of our process. People came who are involved in other projects on the issue of forced labor, but also people with personal connections. Activists, experts, the Kampnagel audience. Some people attended nearly all the meetings on a regular basis and therefore know the project really well. They offered us their voluntary support and shared their knowledge. There were also people who found a space here to talk about perpetrators in their own family, and to address forced labor in the family business. This is actually something we would like to see: That more companies, including cultural institutions, are given the impetus to come to terms with their own history through the "Forced Labor and Resistance" project.

What can visitors expect at the project launch on October 4?
The research and artistic work of the last two years has resulted in an augmented reality app for the Kampnagel building: a tour in which the history can be explored independently and with the use of multimedia. Visitors will also be able to read background texts on the subject on a five-language homepage, into which we will also integrate a database with the names of former forced laborers. That makes it possible to search for information on these people. Both will be publicly available on October 4. We also hang a wall newspaper on the façade in front of the main entrance to draw the public's attention to the app and the website, and provide information relating to forced labor. To mark the project launch, we are organizing a panel discussion on October 4 focusing on the possibilities of a digital culture of remembrance. This will be followed by a festive gala to award the KALEIDOSKOP Art Prize! Here, ten marginalized Hamburg artists receive prizes bearing the names of former forced laborers and people who rendered resistance. We want the names to be remembered and this history not to be forgotten.