KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau am 9. August 2019
(Concentration Camp Memorial Site Dachau on 9 August 2019, drawings), 2019
Pencil on paper, 190 x 140 cm
KZ-Gedenkstätte Buchenwald am 16. Oktober 2019
(Concentration Camp Memorial Site Buchenwald on 16 October 2019, drawings), 2019
Pencil on paper, 223 x 41 cm
Besorgte Bürger
(Concerned Citizens, drawings), 2018
Pencil on paper, 100 x 140 cm
Rechtsextremer Anschlag in Halle am 9. Oktober 2019
(Right-Wing Extremist Terror Attack in Halle on 9 October 2019, drawings based on the Perpetrator’s Video), 2019
Pencil on paper, 157 x 118 cm
Sebastian Jung observed the large-scale demonstrations in the German city of Chemnitz in 2018, capturing them in fleeting, simple drawings in his work titled Besorgte Bürger (Concerned Citizens). His quick sketches have an almost childlike quality, capturing the actions of the citizens who, as ironically pointed out in the title, are driven by “concern.” The artist is interested in the emotional mobilization of the masses, driven by political rhetoric. His portrayals focus less on the individuals, whom he depicts in distorted or exaggerated fashion, and more on conveying their feelings as he experienced them in the situation. Jung grew up in Winzerla, a prefabricated building complex that is part of Jena and became known in Germany as the place where the three right-wing terrorist members of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) were radicalized. He went in search of traces in the area and created drawings to document the NSU trials before the Higher Regional Court of Munich. He then developed these studies into a relief design for the exterior facade of the criminal justice center on Nymphenburger Straße. In the context of the exhibition, Jung also visited the concentration camp memorial sites at Dachau and Buchenwald and created new works. While his images of Dachau capture how present-day visitors experience those sites of remembrance and move through them, at Buchenwald he was mainly interested in the place itself and how it has changed. Another new cycle responds to the attack on the synagogue in Halle (Saale) on October 9, 2019. Jung used a video that the perpetrator posted online as the basis for these drawings.
