erde, wind & feuer

Millions of people lost their lives in the Donetsk region in the early 20th century. In 1945, my grandfather died in a labour camp in the area together with several thousand other people from Upper Silesia. We do not know where he is buried and all that remains is a small diary written in tiny script, which I inherited from my father. Its pages tell of the long and inhuman train journeys, the work in the coal mines, hunger and starvation, and the awful living conditions.

They also tell of his failed escape through the woods, after which he was sentenced to death by hard labour in an iron foundry, and, perhaps hardest of all, of his longing to be reunited with his family. These images are an attempt to capture a ghost that has been buried by the brutality of history and is still manifested in the conflicts of today.

The exhibition took place at NoPlace in November 2014.