Artistic research: Annette Kelm - The Books

Censorship in totalitarian regimes, observation assignments and thought experiments

Making historical things artistically visible and connecting them with the present - this is what artist Annette Kelm achieves with her photographic series "The Books". In precise photographic stagings of around 100 original book covers, the artist creates a renewed or continuing publicity for the works of authors, designers and publishers who fell victim to the book burnings of 1933.

In a preparatory phase, the students gain an overview of the topics indexed by the National Socialist party and trace the question of where the boundaries lie between protection of the public and censorship (approx. 45 min). Afterwards, they will use observation assignments to examine the artistic decisions underlying the exhibition, the diversity of design and themes of the book covers presented, and engage in a thought experiment to explore the situation in a totalitarian regime (approx. 60 min).

€3 per pupil

10th to 13th grade
120 minutes

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