Rooted in my own coming of age in a unified Germany, this project reflects on the experience of a generation shaped by a national culture of remembrance—now confronting its emerging limitations. At its core, memory is neither fixed nor owned; it is a conversation without end, orienting us in time and space and drawing us toward each other. What we choose to remember informs who we are and how we belong.
Since the 1990s, Holocaust-centered remembrance has become embedded in educational initiatives, civic discourse, and public spaces in an attempt to transform historical guilt into moral responsibility and an enduring commitment to ‘Never again’. Yet today, we find ourselves at odds with a reality where the hopes of our upbringing are challenged by resurgent nationalism, and public memory still struggles to embrace the complexity and plurality of a society in flux.
Blending documentary methods with fictional elements, The Weight of Lightness moves between observation and imagination, between feelings of confusion and connection, seeking a space where firmly held beliefs soften and new meanings beyond simple opposites can emerge. Througha journey along historic and present fault lines, the work explores how memory persists and evolves—not only in monuments and rituals, but in the emotional fabric of everyday life.
