eser, 2014

Installation
Heidelberger Kunstverein
 
“eser” shows various chapters of Judith Raum’s artistic research on the involvement of Deutsche Bank and the policies of the German Reich in the colonialist opening up of Anatolia at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. The artist pursues the threads of trade networks and geostrategic interests, drawing on the example of the building of the Anatolian Railway and of the Baghdad Railway from 1888 onwards. 
The ambivalent title (Turkish “work / creation”, but in the context of Raum’s
research also used for “tree” by a Turkish gardener) refers to the two tracks of economic interest that were pursued with the rail construction: Anatolia’s rail link was
to open up markets and raw materials and, at the same time, modernize agriculture.
Paintings and drawings, reminiscent of different modes of touching the soil, assemblage objects, photos of her travels, historical photographs as well as original documentary material from the Deutsche Bank historical archive are on show at the Heidelberger Kunstverein in a space-related installation.
Curated by Susanne Weiß.