2In her three-part intervention in the house of the female guards,
Dominique Hurth addresses the brutal ‚cosiness‘ of the
accommodation for the female concentration camp personnel.
The point of departure for her investigation are private
photographs of the apartments, which provide insights into
details of the domestic furnishings. Curtains, upholstered corner
benches, tablecloths, drawers with glass figures, cushions,
carpets, and other objects suggesting a comfortable living
situation were examined more closely by the artist and, together
with research in women‘s and interior decoration magazines of
the 1930s and early 1940s, placed in an expanded socio-
historical context.
Together with a textile designer, several curtains were woven anew with intentional weaving faults and running stitches, which frame (or block) the view to the outside, which respectively discloses the idyllic settlement of the warden‘s houses, the Lagerstraße and the entrance gate of the concentration camp. Furthermore, collages in the bathroom deal with the everyday life and hygiene culture of women informed by the motif of the bathtub. Not far from there is an installation masquerading as a visitors‘ bench that combines the traditional female craft of embroidery with fragments from Irma Grese‘s court transcripts from the Bergen-Belsen trial (1945).
Together with a textile designer, several curtains were woven anew with intentional weaving faults and running stitches, which frame (or block) the view to the outside, which respectively discloses the idyllic settlement of the warden‘s houses, the Lagerstraße and the entrance gate of the concentration camp. Furthermore, collages in the bathroom deal with the everyday life and hygiene culture of women informed by the motif of the bathtub. Not far from there is an installation masquerading as a visitors‘ bench that combines the traditional female craft of embroidery with fragments from Irma Grese‘s court transcripts from the Bergen-Belsen trial (1945).
„Scheibengardinen, keine Übergardinen.
Nur Scheibengardinen, so. So, solche Gardinen.“
2020
Series of 8 handwoven curtains (cotton, linen and merino wool), each 260 × 80cm Weaver: Christina Klessmann (Berlin)
Series of 6 C-prints, mounted on alu-dibound, each 40 × 50cm
Embroideries on pillows, each 50 × 50cm,
Installation views: “In the Auxiliary of the SS”, Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück, Fürstenberg /Havel)
Photo Credits: Dante Busquets
Nur Scheibengardinen, so. So, solche Gardinen.“
2020
Series of 8 handwoven curtains (cotton, linen and merino wool), each 260 × 80cm Weaver: Christina Klessmann (Berlin)
Series of 6 C-prints, mounted on alu-dibound, each 40 × 50cm
Embroideries on pillows, each 50 × 50cm,
Installation views: “In the Auxiliary of the SS”, Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück, Fürstenberg /Havel)
Photo Credits: Dante Busquets
