Artist Isaac Chong Wai’s Time-Creating Performance in Public Space

Description

Addressing two questions: “What is the future in the past?” and “what is the past in the future?” Chong Wai’s research started with exploring the history of Weimarplatz – formerly the Gauforum – which was built as one of the most important structures for the National Socialist Party in Weimar.

Through those tumultuous times in German history, that space underwent a series of name changes. In 1937 it was named “Adolf Hitler Square,” and during the Allied Occupation, it was renamed “Karl Marx square,” keeping that name up until the fall of the German Democratic Republic, after which point it became nameless, until 1999, when was dubbed “Weimarplatz”.

Now the square is inaccessible to the public. To Chong Wai, it raises questions around what the purpose of public spaces can and will be, and how the history of a site carries into its future incarnations.