Installation in the courtyard by Natascha Sadr Haghighian

#saytheirnames

Samuel Yeboah, Ahmet Sarlak, Mercedes Kierpacz, Kaloyan Velkov, Said Nesar Hashemi, Sedat Gürbüz, Fatih Saraçoğlu, Vili Viorel Păun, Hamza Kurtovi, Ferhat Unvar, Gökhan Gültekin, Enver Şimşek, Aburrahim Özüdoğru, Süleyman Taşköprü, Habil Kılıç, Mehmet Turgut, Ismail Yasar, Theodoros Boulgarides, Mehmet Kubaşık, Halit Yozgat, Walter Lübcke.

It has been one year since the racist attack in Hanau. In commemoration of the victims, the artist Natascha Sadr Haghighian illuminated the boxes in the courtyard of the Stadtgalerie with the names of the victims of right-wing terror in Germany. The 21 boxes are illuminated by spectral colors and each bears a name in white lettering. They form a luminous colored band on the wall of the courtyard.

Installation in the courtyard - Saskia Riedel

Installation in the courtyard - Saskia Riedel

Installation in the courtyard - Saskia Riedel

By using the motto “Say Their Names” a form of remembrance, mourning and accusation is being established in many places around the world, taking a clear stand against racism in order to form a better world. While the names of the perpetrators often get most of the attention, the victims and their families are often forgotten. “Say Their Names” wants to turn around this perspective, focusing the attention on the victims.

The first name on the list is Samuel Yeboah, who came to Germany as a political refugee from Ghana and was murdered on September 19, 1991 in Saarlouis-Fraulautern. The last name on the list is Walter Lübcke, Hessian District President, who was shot by a right-wing extremist on June 1, 2019. In between these two names you can find, among others, the name Ahmet Sarlaks who was murdered in Sulzbach (Saarland) in 2002. Furthermore the names of the victims killed in the attacks on February 19, 2020 in Hanau and the names of the victims who were murdered by the National Socialist Underground (NSU) in several German cities during 2000 and 2006. A painfully long list and yet it must remain incomplete due to insufficient space. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation has at least counted 213 fatalities connected to right-wing violence. The real number is most likely even higher.