»Ihr und Wir«
The major state exhibition ‘You and Us: The Integration of Displaced Persons in Baden-Württemberg’ does not focus on flight and displacement, but brings to life the integration process of the more than 1.6 million displaced persons and refugees in south-west Germany.
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Visitors enter the exhibition through a typographic curtain projected onto a glass surface, composed of the names of the regions and cities from which over 12 million people were displaced. A 150 m² walk-in map depicts the areas of displacement in Eastern and Central Europe. Hundreds of animated arrows projected onto the map mark the refugee flows. The light also glances off the visitors, drawing them into the movement. A curved wall guides visitors towards Baden-Württemberg, directly towards a huge ‘Displacement Door’ in the adjoining exhibition space, which rotates slowly but ceaselessly on its axis – there is no turning back.
The main room, ‘Field of Encounters’, consists of 28 display cases, which in form evoke the archaic image of the house, and which tell the stories of 28 specific encounters from various areas of life – home, work, family, church, clubs, etc. Film and sound are integrated into the display cases as historical documents. The walls of the exhibition space are mirrored, so that the array of display cases is multiplied ad infinitum in every direction – the 28 stories told have been selected as examples from hundreds of thousands of destinies.
Before visitors leave the exhibition, the “Contemporary Witness Cinema” invites them to linger and, through filmed interviews with expellees and local residents of the first, second, and third generations, illustrates how identities have evolved through integration. A contemporary connection to the themes of displacement and integration is established in a separately designed gallery space. There, with a view of the State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg and the vibrant city of Stuttgart, five personal stories are presented as examples of people from around the world who, in recent years, have lost their homes due to war and crises and have found a new one in Baden-Württemberg.
