becoming german
2006, mixed media
How do our childhood memories shape who we become? And what if those memories are not our own, but ‘borrowed’ from someone else? Issues of cultural identity, memory and appropriation are at the core of Joanne Moar’s becoming german project, in which she invites people to ’donate’ or ‘receive’ a German childhood from her online database at www.becoming-german.de. Following the example of the Brothers Grimm, who journeyed through 19th-century Germany collecting fairytales, Moar travelled the country garnering recollections of growing up in Germany for her database – which, to date, has over 13,000 donated memories.
Read an essay by Dr Christoph Kivelitz about this work
