“Lifeline”, an exhibition about exodus and war, at the Timisoara Art Museum TIMPOLIS

Lifeline, the hundredth exhibition of Dieter Mammel, a German artist with origins in Romania, can be seen at the Timişoara Art Museum. This gives the public a panorama of his creations from the last 20 years.

Through six themes – homeland, war, refuge, shelter, family album and survival –, Dieter Mammel it addresses both the experience of collective trauma experienced by those marked by the consequences of war, as well as everyday topics that indicate the arduous path imposed by the process of healing these traumas.

Lifeline is a life line that charts Dieter Mammel’s artistic path over the last 20 years. The exhibition, organized by the Timișoara Art Museum in collaboration with the Central Museum of the Danube Swabians in Ulm and curated by Alexandru Babusciac and Astrid Beyer, will be able to be seen in the Ioachim Miloia Gallery. The opening will take place on Friday, May 10, at 6 p.m., and the exhibition will then remain on the premises until August 4.

Through the exhibited works, Dieter Mammel (born in 1965) opens to the public a window to his inner world, exploring the human condition, both through the prism of the tragedy of his own family, who lived through the Second World War, and through the eyes of those who pass through similar tragedies today. His maternal grandmother was born in Timisoara, and his grandfather had origins in Kacarevo, Serbia, from where, in the 40s, his grandmother fled to Austria with their daughters. The grandfather was taken prisoner of war in Serbia until the beginning of the 50s, after which the whole family moved to Germany. Mammel’s father was also a refugee. As an ethnic German from Bessarabia, he fled with his family from Klöstnitz, Ukraine, in a horse-drawn wagon traveling West.

The theme of exodus and war, closely related to his family’s tumultuous history, is presented as a tribute to their efforts and sacrifices, highlighting the impact of the tragedies of war on the human condition. These human stories trace a cyclical trajectory of suffering initiated by the conflagrations, with his family’s story becoming a representative pattern for the millions of refugees and displaced persons who sought refuge across Europe as a result of the Second World War. In 2015, the artist, on the Greek island of Kos, witnessed the arrival of the first boats with Syrian refugees. Back in Germany, he joined children in refugee centers to draw with them. Thus, the project was born Zeig mir, woher Dukommst / Show me where you come from.