The first workshop day took place at the Archiv Bürgerbewegung Leipzig e. V. Tamás Zádor and Márton Noll (the Glowing Bulbs artist team) and Year 10 pupils from the Gerda Taro School began with a tour of the archive’s repository. The pupils then used the historical documents as a starting point to develop contemporary connections. The material created in the process will become part of the video installation. The day was organised and accompanied by Juliane Thieme, the archive’s education officer, and Roswitha Riemann, art educator at the Gerda Taro Gymnasium.
The second workshop day took the participants to Halle (Saale) – the day was organised and supervised by Anne Kupke-Neidhardt from the Zeit-Geschichte(n) association. Its premises hosted not only further viewing of material, but also an intensive exchange with contemporary witnesses. The artists spoke with Günter Buchenau – the pastor who, on the 9ᵗʰ of October 1989, opened the doors of Halle’s Marktkirche to demonstrators threatened by the Stasi and the People’s Police – and Frank Eigenfeld, co-founder of the New Forum.
Afterwards, the group went to the former Stasi district administration building on Gimritzer Damm, where the files of the former district administration of State Security and the district offices of the Halle district are kept. In total, more than 7,000 linear metres of records have survived. The day concluded with a guided city walk through Halle.
On the third workshop day Leipzig was once again on the programme: Bernd Karwen from the Polish Institute Leipzig had invited the artists to view film material and take part in a discussion with contemporary witnesses Roman Golesz and Dr Hans-Christian Trepte. A guided city walk in Leipzig completed the programme.
