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september 09, 2022 - PCM Studio

Annette Kelm DIE BÜCHER


Fondazione ICA Milano presents, from Friday, September 16 to Saturday, October 15, 2022, the exhibition Die Bucher by 
German artist Annette Kelm (Stuttgart, 1975), curated by Alberto Salvadori and Chiara Nuzzi.
The main focus of the exhibition project, which was originally presented at the Munich Documentation Centre for the 
History of National Socialism in 2019, is the representation of the book, meant as an object able to transcend its mere 
role of narrative tool in order to become a living metaphor. In Annette Kelm’s work, the book becomes a fragment of a 
specific historical time and a vessel for a powerful reflection, articulated around the weight of the past and the impact it 
has on the present.
The exhibition is organized around an itinerary of photographic images, a selection of shots carefully designed by the 
artist to picture a sadly well-known chapter in the history of the 20th century. Each of the 104 photographs set up on the 
first floor of the Foundation depicts one of the volumes that had been banned by the National Socialists starting from
May 10, 1933, when a group of students set more than 30,000 books on fire in Berlin’s Obernplatz. The burning, which 
marked the starting point of the gradual public opinion alignment with the political party that had inspired it, also marked 
the beginning of persecutions of writers and intellectuals who were against those political ideals. Among the authors 
who were banned there were some renowned writers such as Erich Kästner and Stefan Zweig alongside lesser-known 
names, as well as authors of children’s books.
The research initiated by Annette Kelm saw the artist focusing on a genuine study of editions, which led to the careful 
selection of a series of volumes, from both public and private collections, published between 1913 and 1944. Kelm’s 
interest is specifically directed towards a peculiar cultural and urban spirit, reflecting the avant-garde movements from 
the 1920s and 1930s. Kelm pays a particular attention to the design of covers, which, in the wake of the Book Art 
movement, was inspired by the innovations promoted by contemporary art movements such as Expressionism, 
Constructivism, Bauhaus and Dada. Annette Kelm’s destroyed books are portrayed according to precise formal criteria 
and they come back to life, regaining their own dignity, through the lens of the camera. The artist worked on the series 
from 2019 to 2021, concluding the research last year.

Further information in the press release to download