A collaboration with the Viennese studio toikoi on videos for the permanent exhibition Warum? Der Nationalsozialismus in der Steiermark (Why? National Socialism in Styria) at the Museum für Geschichte / Universalmuseum Joanneum Graz. I partecipated as a director in toikoi’s video interviews with the team behind the exhibition, although my main task was to create a video timeline of Nazism in Styria, following the unfolding of the events in the region in relation to the world timeline.

As this exhibition was mainly conceived for students, I decided to work with an approach to mapping that might be familiar to a young audience: that of a ‘Crazy Wall’ or ‘Evidence Board’ as seen in crime films. Information and archival material are presented as elements of an investigation, with the camera exploring surfaces where notes and photos have been placed and where threads connect events and images – making the story easy to learn and remember. The video is intended not only as an introduction to the exhibition itself, but also as a way of highlighting the exciting research behind it – and thus as a stimulus for possible future study paths.

Credits follow, with many thanks to my fellow artists mentioned therein, to the museum’s director Bettina Habsburg-Lothringen, Heribert Macher-Kroisenbrunner from CLIO and to the mind and soul behind toikoi, Chiara Riccardi.

Contents: CLIO – Verein für Geschichts- und Bildungsarbeit
Concept, Realization, Direction: Roberta Cortese
Reprography: Larry RR. Williams
Motion Design: Matteo Guerra
Music: Andrea Chenna

Here some pictures from the exhibition – © Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek