Traces explores memory and place (history and social context) by investigating and transforming an element which is part of the fabric of the built environment.

This method engages the participant of the exercise by allowing them to appropriate their own thread of history, in reinterpreting the chosen artifact with the knowledge of the stories that are revealed. The physical process of remaking and transforming the artifact imbues the piece with an added layer of subjectivity gained from a predominantly objective exercise. In this way, the participant is allowed to become a part of the memory of the place and add to the actuality, rather than the discourse of history.

This exhibition displays the histories and reinterpretations of a paving stone (Trottoirstein) from the former East Berlin.

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