Memory Works On Us

Alexander Kluge makes use of his own archive in a cooperative exchange between the archives of Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno and Bertolt Brecht. In his installation for the exhibition “Arbeit am Gedächtnis – Transforming Archives”, created in collaboration with Erdmut Wizisla, head of the Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht Archives, Kluge combines his films, visual objects and texts from the archives to form a constellation that deals with remembering and forgetting as corresponding temporal organs. Kluge turns the title on its head: Under the heading Memory works on us, we are presented with conceptualizations of memory ranging from the lament to other forms of public mourning, to loss of history, forgiveness or violent disruption.

With Alexander Kluge (filmmaker, writer), Erdmut Wizisla (head of Bertolt Brecht Archive und Walter Benjamin Archive) and Johannes Odenthal (Director of Programming of the Akademie der Künste)

Alexander Kluge is an author, filmmaker, lawyer and founder of the production company dctp. Since 1993, he has been a member of the Akademie der Künste, Literature Section. His research and practice revolve around literature, social theory, film theory and political action on a range of cultural fronts. The Alexander Kluge Archive at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, cooperates with the Walter Benjamin Archive, the Theodor W. Adorno Archive and the Bertolt Brecht Archive.

Followed at 8 pm by From Memory to Political Imagination, the conversation between Alice Creischer and Eduardo Molinari on the question: How do we move from memory work to political imagination and from imagination to political acting?