Re­mem­brance in pic­tures: The ex­hi­bi­ti­on “To­ten­still” at the Kunst­hal­le Ros­tock

From 19 De­cem­ber 2025 to 8 March 2026, the Kunst­hal­le Ros­tock will be show­ing “To­ten­still”, an im­portant se­ries of images by pho­to­grapher Dirk Rein­artz. His black and white pho­to­graphs, ta­ken bet­ween 1987 and 1993, im­pres­si­ve­ly do­cu­ment the for­mer Ger­man con­cen­tra­ti­on camps and are mo­ving in their quiet in­ten­si­ty. The oc­ca­si­on is the 80th an­ni­ver­sa­ry of the li­be­ra­ti­on of Ausch­witz on 27 Ja­nu­ary 2026, which is al­so ce­le­bra­ted as a na­tio­nal day of re­mem­brance for the vic­tims of Na­tio­nal So­cia­lism. The ex­hi­bi­ti­on crea­tes space for re­mem­brance and re­flec­tion — and in­vi­tes vi­si­tors to ac­tively en­ga­ge wi­th what is de­pic­ted.

The ex­hi­bi­ti­on is ac­com­pa­nied by a mu­se­um edu­ca­ti­on pro­gram­me that aims to rai­se young peo­p­le’s awa­re­ness of the is­sues of dis­cri­mi­na­ti­on, de­hu­ma­ni­sa­ti­on and ha­te speech in par­ti­cu­lar and en­cou­ra­ge em­pa­thy and re­spon­si­ble ac­tion. Me­dia from the field of Ex­ten­ded Rea­li­ty (XR), de­ve­lo­ped in co-ope­ra­ti­on wi­th con­tem­po­ra­ry wit­nesses and aca­de­mic part­ners, are used as an in­no­va­ti­ve ap­proach. Dis­cus­sion pa­nels wi­th ex­perts are plan­ned for adults, lin­king his­to­ri­cal con­texts wi­th cur­rent so­cial is­sues and con­tem­po­ra­ry art — and en­ab­ling a sen­si­ti­ve, re­spectful ap­proach to re­mem­brance.