THE INVISIBLE CHOIR
Site-specific Sound Installation (since 2020)
The sound installation The Invisible Choir examines the role that singing played for the resistance and everyday life and at the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
In Ravensbrück, songs were not only performed in secret, but also under coercion and threat of punishment. At the same time, there were songs such as Silent Night that have been tolerated by the guards. Thus, singing was not only an expression of mourning, consolation, encouragement, or protest, but was also used by the wardens as a means of exercising psychological violence against the prisoners.
In the course of a research, Moritz Fehr selected nine pieces that exemplify various functions of singing at the camp. These were rearranged and partly recorded in improvised form. Songs that had to be sung under duress were deliberately omitted. The new recordings form the material for the sound installation, which can be heard in the former private rooms of the wardens (on the balcony as well as in the tea kitchen of one of the apartment buildings).
Vocals and Improvisations:
Julia Dörr, Sina Jacka, Anna Kortmann, Salome Muhr, Johanna Sahm, Elena Elsa Tsantidis, Lydia L. Weißert
Choir Conducting and Arrangements:
Wolfgang Tacke
The installation is part of the project Pictures, Voices and Clichés, presented within the permanent exhibition In the SS-Auxiliary – The Female Guards of the Ravensbrück Women’s Concentration Camp.
A production of the Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück (Ravensbrück Memorial Museum) and the Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten (Brandenburg Memorials Foundation). The exhibition is made possible with the support of the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture, Brandenburg, and the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes).
Further information on the exhibition project Images, Voices and Clichés: The Female Wardens of the Ravensbrück Women’s Concentration Camp – Artistic interventions at the Memorial Museum Ravensbrück
Video documentation (external Vimeo link)
Image and cinematography credit: Smina Bluth
In Ravensbrück, songs were not only performed in secret, but also under coercion and threat of punishment. At the same time, there were songs such as Silent Night that have been tolerated by the guards. Thus, singing was not only an expression of mourning, consolation, encouragement, or protest, but was also used by the wardens as a means of exercising psychological violence against the prisoners.
In the course of a research, Moritz Fehr selected nine pieces that exemplify various functions of singing at the camp. These were rearranged and partly recorded in improvised form. Songs that had to be sung under duress were deliberately omitted. The new recordings form the material for the sound installation, which can be heard in the former private rooms of the wardens (on the balcony as well as in the tea kitchen of one of the apartment buildings).
Vocals and Improvisations:
Julia Dörr, Sina Jacka, Anna Kortmann, Salome Muhr, Johanna Sahm, Elena Elsa Tsantidis, Lydia L. Weißert
Choir Conducting and Arrangements:
Wolfgang Tacke
The installation is part of the project Pictures, Voices and Clichés, presented within the permanent exhibition In the SS-Auxiliary – The Female Guards of the Ravensbrück Women’s Concentration Camp.
A production of the Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück (Ravensbrück Memorial Museum) and the Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten (Brandenburg Memorials Foundation). The exhibition is made possible with the support of the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture, Brandenburg, and the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes).
Further information on the exhibition project Images, Voices and Clichés: The Female Wardens of the Ravensbrück Women’s Concentration Camp – Artistic interventions at the Memorial Museum Ravensbrück
Video documentation (external Vimeo link)
Image and cinematography credit: Smina Bluth
