Marijo Ribas
I am interested in the spaces and how they carry ideology and symbolism. Memorials, public architecture and rural areas are linked to production and migration situations. My research in Lichtenberg began with the sculpture designed by Mies Van der Rohe, built in 1926 and demolished in 1935 by the Nazis. I was interested in the idea of how a memorial that no longer existed, still has a place in the memory. And since that I thought about the function of a memorial, does a memorial repair any damage?
Lichtenbeg has a rural and proletarian past, the most important migrant population during the 60-70, the “gastarbeiters” came from Vietnam. After the fall of the Berlin Wall there was no plan for many of the Vietnamese population living in Lichtenberg, who worked in semi-slavery conditions, subject to time, cohabitation and birth control. With the change in the economic model and the closure of many factories, some Vietnamese returned to their homeland and some decided to stay in Berlin, there is still a significant community, some important meeting points are the Pagoda temple and the Dong Xuan Center.
Food culture is also an identitarian subject, the ritual of harvest, share, sell and eat together. It is not a memorial, it’s ephemeral, but can be toxic or memorable. I used a vegetable, a cucumber, to construct my personal narrative around significant ideas, facts and spaces I found during my residency in Lichtenberg. The result of the research is linked to a series of studio and street photography crossing that ideas.
