The Friedrichsplatz between lightning red and songs of revolution
“Now that the red is slowly taking over Friedrichsplatz it gives me hope that it will turn into a 'red square'. And maybe, in the future, Friedrichsplatz will become Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz." (Sanja Iveković)
Pedestrians on Friedrichsplatz are presently being greeted by the sight of Croatian artist Sanja Iveković's bright red field of poppies.
In the English-speaking world, the red poppy has become a symbol of the memory of soldiers killed in the war, while in the countries with a communist past it has been “adopted” to represent the spirit of resistance and revolution. “or me, coming from Eastern Europe, red poppies are not a symbol for death and dead soldiers but they are little flames of political struggle.”
By also sowing seeds of the opium poppy Sanja Iveković wants to point out to the issue of the cultivation of the opium poppy for drug purposes. Today, six years after the “democratic” government has been installed by the United States, Afghanistan is the country where 92 percent of the world's opium supply is produced. Afghan women are often direct victims of atrocities resulting from the illicit drug trade.
As in many other of her public art works, in Mohnfeld Sanja Iveković has been collaborating with the feminist/activist organizations, in this case with Le Zbor from Zagreb, Croatia, and with RAWA, The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Therefore, the voices of Afghan and Croatian women’s choirs singing the revolutionary songs will be played on Friedrichsplatz twice on sunny days.
At 12 am and 5 pm respectively, nine songs will be broadcast over the loudspeakers. The first four songs are sung by the choir of the women's group from Zagreb Le Zbor in Croatian (www.lezbor.com).
The revolutionary songs selected here reawaken memories of Croatia's socialist past. The following five songs are sung in the two languages spoken in Afghanistan, Dari and Pashto, by students of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (www.rawa.org).
Two songs can be downloaded here as mp3-Files (Red Poppies and Arise Oh Women) as well as the song texts Liedtexte.
The artist will be publishing a book on the work and would like to encourage you to contribute to it. If you have pictures of family, friends, or yourself in the poppy field, please, send them to:mohnfeld(at)documenta.de mohnfeld(at)documenta.de
Pedestrians on Friedrichsplatz are presently being greeted by the sight of Croatian artist Sanja Iveković's bright red field of poppies.
In the English-speaking world, the red poppy has become a symbol of the memory of soldiers killed in the war, while in the countries with a communist past it has been “adopted” to represent the spirit of resistance and revolution. “or me, coming from Eastern Europe, red poppies are not a symbol for death and dead soldiers but they are little flames of political struggle.”
By also sowing seeds of the opium poppy Sanja Iveković wants to point out to the issue of the cultivation of the opium poppy for drug purposes. Today, six years after the “democratic” government has been installed by the United States, Afghanistan is the country where 92 percent of the world's opium supply is produced. Afghan women are often direct victims of atrocities resulting from the illicit drug trade.
As in many other of her public art works, in Mohnfeld Sanja Iveković has been collaborating with the feminist/activist organizations, in this case with Le Zbor from Zagreb, Croatia, and with RAWA, The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Therefore, the voices of Afghan and Croatian women’s choirs singing the revolutionary songs will be played on Friedrichsplatz twice on sunny days.
At 12 am and 5 pm respectively, nine songs will be broadcast over the loudspeakers. The first four songs are sung by the choir of the women's group from Zagreb Le Zbor in Croatian (www.lezbor.com).
The revolutionary songs selected here reawaken memories of Croatia's socialist past. The following five songs are sung in the two languages spoken in Afghanistan, Dari and Pashto, by students of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (www.rawa.org).
Two songs can be downloaded here as mp3-Files (Red Poppies and Arise Oh Women) as well as the song texts Liedtexte.
The artist will be publishing a book on the work and would like to encourage you to contribute to it. If you have pictures of family, friends, or yourself in the poppy field, please, send them to:mohnfeld(at)documenta.de mohnfeld(at)documenta.de
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The work Mohnfeld by Sanja Iveković was realised with the support of The Office for Gender Equality of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna..
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