The spatial installation "Concert for Buchenwald" by artist Rebecca Horn has been on display in a historic streetcar depot in the disused E-Werk Weimar since 1999. The internationally acclaimed work is considered one of the most important examples of contemporary art in Germany on the subject of the Holocaust.
The installation
Old, used musical instruments and their leather cases are piled up on a short track. It is a silent concert for Buchenwald: the violins, mandolins and guitars in this installation are symbolic of each individual fate. However, the music and the singing, the people, are missing. The installation was created especially for the approximately 150 square meter, windowless room of the former streetcar depot. The work is thus inextricably linked to the location and, through its reference to Buchenwald, to the city of Weimar.
The installation was created as part of the European City of Culture Year 1999 in Weimar. It was purchased for the Klassik Stiftung Weimar in 2002 with generous support from the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the German Savings Banks and Giro Association with its Savings Banks Cultural Fund as well as the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen, Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, SV Sparkassen-Versicherung and Sparkasse Mittelthüringen. The installation has been part of the Quartier Weimarer Moderne since 2019.
The artist
Rebecca Horn was born in Odenwald in 1944 and studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg and St. Martin's School of Art in London. She has taught at the Berlin University of the Arts since 1989. She lives in Berlin and Paris. In her award-winning works, Rebecca Horn combines various artistic disciplines such as performances, installations, kinetic objects, poetics, film and drawings.
General opening hours
Sat-Sun, public holidays | 11-17 h
