#TakeOver: The Fear Game
Sebastian Jung’s drawings of demonstrations as part of the memorial work of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism
In a seminar at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, master and bachelor students from the Institute of Art History intensively accompanied the process of creating the temporary exhibition “Tell me about yesterday tomorrow”. They dealt with selected works of art, were contact persons for the visitors at the opening on November 27, 2019 and interviewed several artists. This has resulted in contributions to the blog for the exhibition.
Sebastian Jung observed the titular “concerned citizens” demonstrating in Chemnitz and documented them in sketches. As of now, they can also be seen on the fourth floor of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism. Framed in white passe-partouts and laid out neatly in lines, they glare at me angrily.
They are well integrated into their surroundings, as the Documentation Centre’s permanent exhibition begins here on the highest floor of the building. It starts with the end of the First World War and the outbreak of the November revolution in 1918. The wall captions and displays attempt to explain how the Nazi Party came to be and rose to power. Upon closer consideration, an inescapable parallel strikes me when observing the current social and political situation in Germany today. At present, the nationalist AfD has 91 seats in the Bundestag; in the Saxony state elections they received 27.55% of the vote, and in Chemnitz, neo-Nazis march through the streets waving banners. Could history repeat itself?
Sebastian Jung has events well in hand. In fleeting documentary-style sketches, he concentrates on noteworthy elements and rapidly puts them to paper. In his work series Concerned Citizens, created in 2018 in Chemnitz, the focus is above all on emotion. Eyebrows drawn down in frowns, scowls and open mouths dominate the general picture. Extreme emotions are depicted: hate, anger, fury – but also fear. What are they afraid of? Perhaps of the ideas being constructed in political and strategic communication. AfD politician Björn Höcke claimed to be “concerned” in one of his election advertisements for the Thuringian state elections. The expression “concerned” was repeated six times throughout the 1:35 minute long video. The fear game is nothing new, as the memorial work in the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism shows us.
It is exactly this emotional mobilization of the masses that Jung seeks to examine with his documentation in the form of art. In contrast to the permanent exhibition, it is a subjective view on current events and yet, even in these reduced drawings, some of the truth is reflected. Thus incorporated into the permanent exhibition, Jung’s work serves as a warning.
By Julia Anna Wittmann, a student of art history at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich
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#TakeOver: The Fear Game
Sebastian Jung’s drawings of demonstrations as part of the memorial work of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism
In a seminar at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, master and bachelor students from the Institute of Art History intensively accompanied the process of creating the temporary exhibition “Tell me about yesterday tomorrow”. They dealt with selected works of art, were contact persons for the visitors at the opening on November 27, 2019 and interviewed several artists. This has resulted in contributions to the blog for the exhibition.
Sebastian Jung observed the titular “concerned citizens” demonstrating in Chemnitz and documented them in sketches. As of now, they can also be seen on the fourth floor of the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism. Framed in white passe-partouts and laid out neatly in lines, they glare at me angrily.
They are well integrated into their surroundings, as the Documentation Centre’s permanent exhibition begins here on the highest floor of the building. It starts with the end of the First World War and the outbreak of the November revolution in 1918. The wall captions and displays attempt to explain how the Nazi Party came to be and rose to power. Upon closer consideration, an inescapable parallel strikes me when observing the current social and political situation in Germany today. At present, the nationalist AfD has 91 seats in the Bundestag; in the Saxony state elections they received 27.55% of the vote, and in Chemnitz, neo-Nazis march through the streets waving banners. Could history repeat itself?
Sebastian Jung has events well in hand. In fleeting documentary-style sketches, he concentrates on noteworthy elements and rapidly puts them to paper. In his work series Concerned Citizens, created in 2018 in Chemnitz, the focus is above all on emotion. Eyebrows drawn down in frowns, scowls and open mouths dominate the general picture. Extreme emotions are depicted: hate, anger, fury – but also fear. What are they afraid of? Perhaps of the ideas being constructed in political and strategic communication. AfD politician Björn Höcke claimed to be “concerned” in one of his election advertisements for the Thuringian state elections. The expression “concerned” was repeated six times throughout the 1:35 minute long video. The fear game is nothing new, as the memorial work in the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism shows us.
It is exactly this emotional mobilization of the masses that Jung seeks to examine with his documentation in the form of art. In contrast to the permanent exhibition, it is a subjective view on current events and yet, even in these reduced drawings, some of the truth is reflected. Thus incorporated into the permanent exhibition, Jung’s work serves as a warning.
By Julia Anna Wittmann, a student of art history at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich