Afgestudeerd december 2021
Why being quiet is so loud.
My family seems to collect stories of war. And I continue to do so.
I grew up on the front line of the Cold War with a West German mother, a Russian father and two grandfathers who fought against each other during Word War II. My German Jewish grandmother managed to escape Nazi Germany into Switzerland in the late 30’s. Just in time. Now I find myself in a relationship with a war traumatized person from the Balkans.
From a young age I remember the tension, the discrepancies between a happy childhood and a heavy memory, growing up between innocence and political friction entering the intimacy of family life. I want to break the circle, to find out and speak about what the stories and traumas of my loved ones are doing to me.
What is your story? What do you collect?