Sonya Schönberger combines her studies in ethnology and experimental media design in her artistic practice. In recent years, she has built up a long-term archive for which she conducted private conversations with witnesses of the Second World War in various countries.
With the help of this “archive of memories”, she examines the effects of a nation’s traumas on future generations. She also works with existing archives, such as the estate of journalist André Müller, who documented the post-war period in West Germany by critically collecting influential voices, or with finds from an archaeological excavation uncovering the Second World War prisoner-of-war camp on Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin.
In 2018, she initiated and began the long-term video archive “Berliner Zimmer” in cooperation with the Stadtmuseum Berlin. This project, designed to span a hundred years, gives the people of this city the opportunity to speak as witnesses of their own reality, thus capturing both individual and general aspects of urban history. At present, she is also focusing her work on the relationship between society and nature, using plants as an example to address the consequences of colonial expansion. Depending on the project, she employs various media such as photography, theatre, film, installation, or audio formats, as well as combinations thereof.
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