University: Fachhochschule Bielefelds, Germany
Course:  Bachelor Fine Art Photography
Year of graduation: 2017
Thesis: CA 19-9 Positivität
Contacts: olliwiegner[at]me[dot]com | website

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Abstract: This project deals with collective memories of a German history between post-war era and trauma as well as normality and everyday life within the background of my family's history. By combining pictures found in family albums, sundry documents and my own photos, a very fragmented portrayal of a fate is being created. The many gaps and uncertainties mirror unanswered questions and the unreliability of human memory.
The structure of the project echoes Memory Theory written by intellectuals such as Maurice Halbwachs and deals with social conditions of remembering thereby searching for influences that different ways of remembering have on each other as well as us humans. Halbwachs for example defines memory in two different categories, one is called Gedächtnis (memory) and Geschichte (history). Geschichte contains historically accurate, provable information about a certain time span or event without any attachment of emotions. Gedächtnis on the other hand describes the subjective and personal experience a certain person has of that same time span or event. Building up on those, there is Familiengedächtnis (family memory), which describes memories, shared by a social group—namely a family—which are being evoked and dependent on certain places and of course members of said family. These memories are highly subjective and used to underline the family’s identity through selection and repetition.
CA 19-9 Positivität unifies all of those concepts. My project shows places and documents of certain memories and events, both historical and personal, alongside an attempt to retrace parts of my Familiengedächtnis.
As mentioned in the introduction, this attempt remains unsuccessful due to the silence surrounding most of World War II as well as the post war era and my own lack of recognising and in turn questioning this silence when there still was time to ask.

© Olli Wiegner from the series 'CA 19-9 Positivität'

© Olli Wiegner from the series 'CA 19-9 Positivität'

© Olli Wiegner from the series 'CA 19-9 Positivität'

© Olli Wiegner from the series 'CA 19-9 Positivität'

© Olli Wiegner from the series 'CA 19-9 Positivität'

© Olli Wiegner from the series 'CA 19-9 Positivität'

 
© Olli Wiegner from the series 'CA 19-9 Positivität'

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