A Better Society—ABS

The 9th grade class of the MORUS-Oberschule in Erkner, together with the art teacher Dejan Marković and the artists Santiago Calderón und Aliza Yanes, set out to explore the theme of ‘brother countries’ through interviews with contemporary witnesses. The students broadened their understanding of the history of the German Democratic Republic with a focus on the life of migrants from the brother countries of Vietnam and Turkey, learnt about stories that had all but been forgotten, and concentrated their research on the notion of a politics of joy and solidarity. Together with the artist Hamed Eshrat, they have translated their interviews into comics which appear across eight flags situated in front of HKW. Here the past serves as a means of developing a better understanding of the present, in order to ascertain the extent to which historical and contemporary experiences of being ‘othered’ are connected to the lives of today’s youth. 

Participating school: MORUS-Oberschule in Erkner with Charlotte Böhning (9a), Luis Brenner (9b), Dave Degenkolb (9c), Mia-Coco Frommberger (9c), Valeria Gaida (9b), Ben Misgeld (9c), Samantha Matthes (9b), Flora Mitscherling (9c), Emilia Reichert (9c), Melina Schulz (9c), Lukas Steudtner (9b), Sandro Tannenberg (9a), Roman Wenzel (9a), Lara Winzer (9b), Ben Zimmermann (9b)
Teacher: Dejan Marković 
Artists: Santiago Calderón, Aliza Yanes, Hamed Eshrat 
Contemporary witnesses: Tanju Tügel, Hải Bluhm, Bernd Lange 

Work in the exhibition:
Eine bessere Gesellschaft – EBG [A better society – ABS] (2024), 8 flags, each 1.5 m × 2.3 m. Courtesy of the artists