In what ways can memory be documented as a subjective, multi-perspectival and participative process and made visible? How can recent urban history be experienced and put into relation to the present?
With the Archive of Subjective Memories UnDesignUnit has created a framework within which the history of Lothringer 13 Halle as an art space of the city of Munich may be documented and made visible. The archive gathers memories from the context of Lothringer 13 Halle which has since 1980 been an important site of artistic production and exhibition.
The archive fills in a gap in the more recent urban history by putting together artefacts from the holdings, personal memorabilia and conversations held with people who have known or been involved with the site at different points in time, and bringing them in relation to each other chronologically and content-wise. Departing from the stories told by different actors from the context of the Lothringer 13 Halle, the various concepts, visions and narratives from the institution’s eventful history are being documented and made accessible.
For the archive, UnDesignUnit combined methods from oral history and design research to a unique approach to the archive theme which places the focus on the subjectiveness of memory processes. The aim is to include a wide range of perspectives including non-institutional ones, and render recent history concrete and related to the present.
The archive has been conceived as a growing installation in the exhibition “over 13 – reflections on an art space” and will be enriched during the exhibition’s duration with further exhibits, threads and connections. In the reception office, which is part of the archive in the exhibition, visitors and contemporaries, among them artists, curators as well as former staff members and neighbors are being invited to contribute their personal souvenirs such as invitations and photos, or correspondence and stories to the archive, which will gradually be integrated into the existing installation.
The Archive of Subjective Memories is becoming a permanent institution in the front rooms of the Lothringer Strasse Halle. All those interested may discover printed matter, artefacts and stories from the lively history of the municipal art space and retrace and experience the personal memories, insights, meanings and narratives from 40 years art space.
The Archive of the Subjective Memories is a contribution to the exhibition over 13 – reflections on an art space (10.10.2020—11.4.2021) on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the art space of the city of Munich, curated by Lisa Britzger and Luzi Gross (Lothringer 13 Halle) in collaboration with Anna Lena von Helldorff with the support ofTheo Thönnessen.
The conversations with contemporaries are available for online listening at https://www.lothringer13.com/material/stories/was-ist-ein-archiv-der-subjektiven-erinnerungen/ (in German).
Photos: Constanza Meléndez, Gerhard Gross_studio karonga, Sarah Dorkenwald
Press release (in German) (PDF)
Essay on Archive of the Subjective Memories in the exhibition reader over 13 – reflections on an art space (in German) (PDF)
In October 2022 the Archive of the Subjective Memories moved permanently in with the Lothringer Straße 13 art space. With the funds of the Kulturreferat of the City of Munich UnDesignUnit transferred the Archive into a permanent form. It is conceived to make the materials accessible and to include further materials in the future. Visitors, artists, curators, former collaborators and neighbours are invited to contribute their personal memories such as invitations and photos, or correspondence and stories to the archive.
Archive of the Subjective Memories
Lothringer 13 front room
Ein Kunstraum der Stadt München
Lothringer Straße 13, 81667 München
