Merle Dammhayn

My research-based practice is strongly informed by my theoretical primary studies in history, in the course of which I focused on the field of violence studies with an emphasis on perpetrator research. In my artistic practice, as well, I draw attention to actors, their backgrounds, their scopes of action, and the constraints that weigh upon them. I am particularly investigating the structures that affect them, their historical becoming and the narratives used to maintain a system and to guarantee the credibility of it’s actors. It is therefore the conversation which I am seeking in my process, in order to understand the human dimension of a phenomenon I’m addressing. Furthermore, I hope to ask the ‘right’ questions in this way at the neuralgic points and thereby – this I what I understand as my artistic mission – to stimulate a rethinking. My mainly installation-based productions, which are often coupled with sound and/or video, are intended to create visibility in the art space for aspects of an issue that have been less explored to date, and to contribute to making a discourse not more complicated, but more complex.