Anna Witt

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WALKING THROUGH WALLS

ongoing project in 3 parts ;installation, video, object; 2015

In collaboration with Ashraf Jabbal and Alexa Dreesmann

Walking through walls is an ongoing project about the status of being a refugee in Germany, in the case of two personal biographies; a former East German Refugee, who was trying to escape through the iron curtain to West Germany in the late 80ies and a young Syrian Refugee who recently made his way from Damascus to Leipzig.

"Walk through walls" is a skill that you know rather from computer games. As a title for my project it describes the situation of escaping a threatening situation, often across borders and under difficulties, to a supposedly safe place. In fact, this movement however means for the refugees, to replace a precarious reality of life for another. And the border is not the only wall that must be overcome.

WALKING THROUGH WALLS-Part 1 includes a video of the first meeting of the two persons, in which they took protocol of each other`s story in a neutral, almost bureaucratic way. Both stories are told alternately at the same time and seem to blur into each other, as the speakers sometimes switch from their own story to the story of the other. The video is shown within a flexible pole construction and a selection of media images chosen by the protagonist.