On the outskirts of the small town of Gommern, a heath garden has been inviting visitors for a walk since 1996. This was once the site of Ernst Reindel’s rendering plant, who executed numerous people as an executioner during the Nazi era. The insistent camera view shows images in the here and now, while a stoic narrative voice recites original documents from Ernst Reindel’s biography. What do we remember? How do we commemorate? What remains?
The term “Begehung” is ambiguous in German. The title can be understood as “Begehung eines Ortes” (site visit) as well as a term from jurisprudence: “Begehung eines Verbrechens” (committing a crime). Since a corresponding translation in English seemed insufficient, we decided to keep the German title as the international title.
“I am always interested in making the invisible visible or tangible. By this I mean real but inaccessible places, as well as mental spaces, abstract systems of thought or belief, and complex systematic processes. The reappraisal of history, especially of its dark sides, seems to me to be of crucial importance for the understanding of the present and for the creation of a better future, especially in our increasingly vulnerable existence. In view of a steadily increasing insecurity due to radicalization of ethnic groups and parties, and an already inadequate reappraisal of our history, it is often the painful questions that are of relevance. Such questions cannot be asked often enough.”
Biography
Thomas Brück was born in Zapopan (Mexico) in 1988. He first studied Latin American Studies at the University of Bonn (Germany) and from 2013 Time-Based Art at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule in Halle and in 2017/18 Media Art and Cinematography at Havana University of the Arts. In 2022 he graduated from the Professional Media Master Class of the Werkleitz Society for Artistic Documentary and was a fellow of the Art Foundation of the State of Saxony-Anhalt and the Art Fund Foundation. He is currently developing his first documentary feature film as a scholarship holder of the Graduate Funding of the State of Saxony-Anhalt. In his artistic work he deals with various epistemological concepts on the formation of reality and identity and the relationship between objectivity and aesthetic illusion. Thomas Brück lives and works in Halle and Leipzig (Germany).
