2005
‘The performance Asche is conceptualized as a memorial for the 60 years anniversary after the KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Red Army. Using fine ashes as a signifier, Martin is articulating her positionality within the intersections of having a German nationality, being a female, being an artist. The act of commemorating an event through performance reflects on the status of built, physical monuments. Through her gestures a layer of dust is emerging through the space, covering Martin’s body, disguising the space and even expanding outside of its white walls. Ash is uncontainable, untamed, contaminating ventilation systems, electrical installations, the bystander’s lungs spreading beyond its container, engulfing the totality of the space within a cloud of dust. Like the memories of trauma and the haunting of atrocities it is uncontainable, and it pertains reminding us that this is the reality we should face and cannot avoid.'
MA Lila Athanasiadou
Lecturer Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam / Curator team MAMA Rotterdam