|
Frankfurt upon Main Germany |
Peterskirchhof | 'Injured Love' Frankfurt AIDS Memorial |
since 1 December 1994 without names |
According to Fecht, „Injured Love“ foregrounds an individual feeling that comprehends both rational and irrational elements, actions and reactions. “'Injured Love' is also the total of my personal experience in the artistic involvement with the topic” he then stated in the argumentation for his draft. In his draft, Fecht consciously chose an open form considering that the number of people who died of AIDS is still increasing.
The memorial is composed of the elements writing and nails. The words “Injured Love” have been set in golden letters into the sandstone wall of the churchyard and are reprised elsewhere with the dedication “à l'amour blessé 1994”. Continuously, nails are set in the wall for each person who deceased of AIDS in Frankfurt. The nails are deliberately not named or denoted otherwise. Only their position in the walls and their particular cast of shadow come out individually. According to Fecht, each nail stands for the death of all anonymous victims, for all the injuries linked to any new affection: loneliness, discrimination, fear, loss of confidence, loss of friends. Besides their symbolic-contentual function (the nails take up the religious motif of crucifixion; the dishonouring through a torturing execution has always been inflicted on humans with a different kind of conviction and belief, a different cast of mind and living), the nails also have a practical function during initiatives and commemoratives - be it for fastening personal souvenirs, flowers, banners or other things. The memorial was supposed to be a lively place.
And so it happens - particularly on the annual World AIDS Day when the funeral march through the Frankfurt city centre ends at the memorial where the names of the deceased of the past year are read out and then further nails are hammered into the wall. The wall and thus the remembrance of the deceased are enlivened on this evening by countless red roses and torches carried-along.
During the year, it is up to us all how much liveliness the memorial will encompass and give away.
AIDS-Hilfe Frankfurt - ACT UP Frankfurt
The memorial is composed of the elements writing and nails. The words “Injured Love” have been set in golden letters into the sandstone wall of the churchyard and are reprised elsewhere with the dedication “à l'amour blessé 1994”. Continuously, nails are set in the wall for each person who deceased of AIDS in Frankfurt. The nails are deliberately not named or denoted otherwise. Only their position in the walls and their particular cast of shadow come out individually. According to Fecht, each nail stands for the death of all anonymous victims, for all the injuries linked to any new affection: loneliness, discrimination, fear, loss of confidence, loss of friends. Besides their symbolic-contentual function (the nails take up the religious motif of crucifixion; the dishonouring through a torturing execution has always been inflicted on humans with a different kind of conviction and belief, a different cast of mind and living), the nails also have a practical function during initiatives and commemoratives - be it for fastening personal souvenirs, flowers, banners or other things. The memorial was supposed to be a lively place.
And so it happens - particularly on the annual World AIDS Day when the funeral march through the Frankfurt city centre ends at the memorial where the names of the deceased of the past year are read out and then further nails are hammered into the wall. The wall and thus the remembrance of the deceased are enlivened on this evening by countless red roses and torches carried-along.
During the year, it is up to us all how much liveliness the memorial will encompass and give away.
AIDS-Hilfe Frankfurt - ACT UP Frankfurt
