The Building. Amidst Us

Deconstruction of a building Linz 2009 – A public installation
and exhibition for Linz09 – European Capital of Culture 2009
Realization / Cooperation with Hito Steyerl

Der Bau (the building) tells the stories of the Brigdehead Buildings, whose erection was closely connected to National Socialism´s history of terror. Using the buildings as a focal point, it uncovers the traces of everyday life under the National Socialist regime.

Der Bau confronts the building and its surroundings as they appear today with archival documentation, material evidence, and eyewitness interviews. Its stories are told in five video displays by Hito Steyerl, mounted in the building’s commercial space. A pattern chiseled into the building´s façade – directed by the architect Gabu Heindl – shows the trajectories of the stories´ protagonists across the world, removing the plaster to reveal a symbolic map of forced labor, displacement, and annihilation.