Pablo Lerma

Pablo Lerma's artistic practice develops at the intersection of photography and writing with a focus on visual archives and vernacular materials that address concepts of time, erosion, identity and counter-narrative. His work consist of a rich variety from photographic installations to publications.

He is the founder of the publishing house Meteoro Editions (US-NL), a platform for the creation of art publications with a focus on projects engaging with non-art photography, archives, utopias and fictional representations of the world. He is currently teaching social art practice at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and is a faculty member in media and photography at Webster University in Leiden. For the past ten years he has been a faculty member in photography and social justice at the International Center of Photography in New York and a professor of photography at Kean University in New Jersey.

As an artist, theorist and mediator, Pablo Lerma questions the archive of the Nazi Documentation Centre with its photographic holdings from the National Socialist era for aspects of visibility and invisibility, representation and trauma, and (sub)seeks the historical and contemporary power structures that are fixed in it. Through a reenactment, the memorial's holdings will be activated and the opening, viewing and storage of archival materials will become the subject of a performance.

Pablo Lerma at the Photoszene-Festival 2023
 

Pablo Lerma was interviewed by students in the master's programme "Photography Studies and Research", which is led by Prof. Dr. Steffen Siegel. He talks about his artistic practice and his residency project.

Interview with Pablo Lerma

More about Pablo Lerma:
https://pablolerma.com
https://www.instagram.com/_pablolerma_/

Pablo Lerma visits the NS-Documenation Centre Cologne

NS Documentation Centre of the City of Cologne

The NS Documentation Centre of the City of Cologne is dedicated to commemorating the victims of the Nazi regime and to researching and communicating the history of Cologne under NS-Regime. It is located in the EL-DE-Haus, where the headquarters of the Cologne Gestapo were situated from December 1935 to March 1945. The Gestapo prison with around 1,800 wall inscriptions by prisoners from the years 1943 to 1945 has been preserved and has been accessible as a memorial since 1981. Since 1997, the permanent exhibition "Cologne under National Socialism" has provided information about political, social and public life during the Nazi era.

Numerous special exhibitions, events, research projects and publications on a wide range of topics expand the range of offerings. Since 2008, the Information and Education Centre against Right-Wing Extremism (ibs) has expanded the scientific and educational work of the NS Documentation Centre to include the aspect of dealing with current right-wing extremist, racist, anti-semitic and discriminatory ideologies and manifestations. In the Documentation and Collections Department, every kind of evidence of Cologne's history under National Socialism and the confrontation with the Nazi era and remembrance after 1945 is collected and made accessible for internal research and exhibition projects as well as for external use.

While the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne archives the city's administrative records from the years 1933 to 1945, the holdings of the NS-DOK are primarily written material and collections under private ownership. Particularly important is the collection on Jewish history (with a focus on the period 1900-1945) and the biographical collection on forced labour, the basis for which was provided by the visit programmes for Jewish former Cologne residents and for former forced labourers, concentration camp inmates and prisoners of war that have been carried out since the 1980s, as well as the collection on the topic of youth 1918-1945. Interviews with contemporary witnesses that were conducted as part of NS-DOK projects form an important part of the archive.

The image archive currently comprises around 125,000 objects from the 1870s to the present: mainly photographies and photoalbums, as well as printed image media such as posters, postcards, cigarette collectors’ pictures, advertising stamps, and graphic art and paintings including works by György Békeffi, Grigory Berstein, H. W. Brockmann, Phili. W. Brockmann, Philibert Charrin, Ingeborg Drews, Heinrich Feulner, Rolf Maria Koller, Yury Kharchenko, Heinz Kroh, Peter Joseph Paffenholz, Otto Schloss and Ben Warzager. Digital copies of photo albums and illustrated diaries and journey books from the Collection Youth 1918-1945 are accessible via the website: Editionen zur Zeitgeschichte NS Documentation Centre of the City of Cologne Appellhofplatz 23-25 50667 Cologne More information: https://museenkoeln.de/ns-dokumentationszentrum/ https://www.facebook.com/ns.dokumentationszentrum.koeln