ESCAPING
The project explores attempts to escape from the GDR as acts of resistance, courage, and human longing for freedom, contrasting them with the current condition of the Stasi Museum and juxtaposing them with materials from the Stasi archive that document historical events, locations, and bureaucratic traces. Rather than portraying these events in a conventional documentary sense, the project reinterprets them through a poetic and visual lens, focusing on the tension between surveillance and movement, control, and the desire for escape.
ESCAPING, therefore, invites consideration of how systems of power continue to shape bodies and borders today, while also revealing the possibilities for escape within the current geopolitical landscape.
The project includes materials from the Stasi Media Library (https://www.stasi-mediathek.de/) and uses the visuals with permission.
The project is still in progress.
LIST OF SIGNATURES / FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
1 (Left) - Stasi Mediathek, Former offices of Erich Mielke after the dissolution of the Ministry for State Security (MfS), Signature: BArch, MfS, HA IX, Fo, No. 610
(Right) - Stasi Mediathek, Photo documentation of an attempted escape from the Republic, Signature: BArch, MfS, HA XX, Fo, No. 558
2 - Stasi Mediathek, Aerial photographs of the Stasi headquarters, Signature: BArch, MfS, HA II, Fo, No. 32
3 - Stasi Mediathek, Former offices of Erich Mielke after the dissolution of the Ministry for State Security (MfS), Signature: BArch, MfS, HA IX, Fo, No. 610
4 (Left) - Stasi Mediathek, Photo documentation of an attempted escape from the Republic, Signature: BArch, MfS, HA XX, Fo, No. 558
(Right) - Soviet miniature camera F-21 with button attached
5 - Stasi Museum, author’s photograph
6 (Left) - Stasi Mediathek, Sample identity card for the border area in East Berlin, Signature: BArch, MfS, BV Berlin, BdL, No. 118, Vol. 3
(Right) - Stasi Mediathek, Photo documentation of an attempted escape from the Republic, Signature: BArch, MfS, HA XX, Fo, No. 558
7 - Stasi Museum, author’s photograph
8 (Left & Right) - Stasi Museum, author’s photograph
9 - Stasi Mediathek, Seized leaflet "Freedom of Dissenters" Signature: BArch, MfS, BV Rostock, AU, No. 1646/88, Vol. 2
10 (Left) - Stasi Mediathek, Photo documentation of the demonstration against state violence and for freedom of expression and assembly, Signature: BArch, MfS, BV Berlin, Fo, No. 3
(Right) - Outside the Stasi Museum, author’s photograph
11 - Stasi Mediathek, Photo album by Erich Mielke on the construction of the Berlin Wall, Signature: BArch, MfS, ZAIG, Fo, No. 2813
12 (Left) - Stasi Mediathek, Former offices of Erich Mielke after the dissolution of the Ministry for State Security (MfS), Signature: BArch, MfS, HA IX, Fo, No. 610
(Right) - Lenin, Collected Works, East Berlin, 1974
13 - Stasi Mediathek, Photo documentation of an attempted escape from the Republic, Signature: BArch, MfS, HA XX, Fo, No. 558
14 (Left) - Stasi Museum, author’s photograph
(Right) - Stasi Mediathek, Photo documentation of an attempted escape from the Republic, Signature: BArch, MfS, HA XX, Fo, No. 558
15 - Stasi Museum, author’s photograph
16 (Left) - Stasi Mediathek, Leaflet "How long will the human rights violations in the GDR continue?", Signature: BArch, MfS, BV Bln, Dept. XX, No. 2983
(Right) - Stasi Tunnel, author’s photograph
17 - Compartment shelves of an MfS post file cabinet, 1989
18 (Left) - Stasi Archive, author’s photograph
(Right) - Remains of the Berlin Wall, author’s photograph
19 - Stasi Mediathek, Photo documentation of the demonstration against state violence and for freedom of expression and assembly, Signature: BArch, MfS, BV Berlin, Fo, No. 3