A co-operation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation
The artistic intervention ‘Viva Alemania’ by Mala Reinhardt and Patrick Lohse deals with the discourse on monuments to the so-called ‘guest workers’ in Germany.
It consists of a memorial plinth under construction and a film re-enactment of the reception of Armando Rodrigues de Sá as the ‘one millionth guest worker’ in Cologne Deutz in 1964. The unfinished plinth is intended to raise the question of whether the concept of a memorial is the right way to remember the history of the first ‘guest workers’ and the beginnings and significance of labour migration to Germany. In combination with the film re-enactment, the intervention aims to call for a new perspective on the German self-image of migration and to ask about the possibilities of depicting the diverse experiences of all immigrants in Germany.