Lukasz Surowiec
Berlin-Birkenau, 2012

The birch trees in the courtyard of KW are part of a “living archive” by polish artist Lukasz Surowiec, which consists of hundreds of young trees that come from the area of the former concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. On the occasion of the 7th Berlin Biennale these birch seedlings were distributed as a symbolic gesture throughout the urban area. They become an embodiment of the traumatic past of the place at their respective destination which is usually set in an historical connection to the Holocaust.