On August 29, 2001, twenty-five years ago, Habil Kılıç was murdered by the far-right NSU in Munich, shot twice in the head in the immediate vicinity of a police station. In memory of Habil Kılıç, Enver Şimşek, Abdurrahim Özüdoğru, Süleyman Taşköprü, Mehmet Turgut, İsmail Yaşar, Theodoros Boulgarides, Mehmet Kubaşık, Halit Yozgat, Michèle Kiesewetter, and all other victims of far-right violence, the public art project Gedächtnislücken #revisited. A Temporary Monument Addressing the Gaps in the Investigation of the NSU Case by Katharina Kohl and Nina Kalenbach will be presented from today onwards in thirteen poster frames in the outdoor space of the GAK and at additional locations throughout Bremen over the coming weeks.
The project is based on Katharina Kohl’s graphic series Gedächtnislücken (Gaps in Memory), comprising forty sheets. Using laser and stencil printing, she blacked out pages from the first NSU Inquiry Committee of the German Bundestag, leaving visible only those passages containing statements and fragments such as: “Und dass es mir nicht erinnerlich ist, deutet in die Richtung, dass es auch nicht stattgefunden hat.”, “… kann ich nicht mehr sagen,”, “—Jetzt habe ich ein bisschen den Faden verloren.”, and “Soweit ich weiß, wussten wir nichts.” (in English: “And the fact that I do not recall it points to the conclusion that it did not take place,” “… I can no longer say,” “—Now I’ve lost the thread a bit,” and “As far as I know, we knew nothing.”)
The records of this Inquiry Committee, established in 2012, are publicly archived online, allowing the relevant passages to be reviewed in the context of witness statements by referencing the legislative term, date, and page number.
First realized in Hamburg in June this year as a dense web of posters and videos on advertising columns, presentations in print media and social media, the website gedaechtnis-luecken.de, and a series of discussion events, the public art project Gedächtnislücken #revisited brings institutional and individual forms of “not-remembering” into places of public discourse. It creates a memorial to the victims that resists the rigidity of a hardened collective memory. Instead, by pointing to gaps and structural contradictions within the system of internal security, the project raises questions and encourages reflection on and public discussion about the NSU complex—which remains unresolved despite investigations, interrogations, trials, and records. At the same time, in its temporary nature, the commemorative sculpture asks about the possibilities of public remembrance and the problems of collective non-remembrance.
The project explores how remembrance and monuments can be transferred, interpreted, and questioned, and how they can be made visible in diverse locations connected to the NSU complex. These locations include not only the sites of NSU crimes but also places where incidents related to these gaps in memory occur. According to Gedächtnislücken #revisited, remembrance is not a singular event but a process of connection and collective engagement—one that we also invite you to join here in Bremen.
During the project’s display in Bremen, a conversation with the project initiators will take place, providing an opportunity for public exchange. The exact date will be announced shortly.
Artist Katharina Kohl was awarded the Hamburg Visual Arts Working Grant in 2025 and is currently a fellow of the Stiftung Kunstfonds (2026). Through her artistic practice, she has engaged extensively with the issue of internal security in relation to the NSU complex, including in the series Personalbefragung (2012–2018) and Gedächtnislücken (2017–2018). Since 2005, she has operated the mobile project Kunst-Imbiss in urban spaces throughout Hamburg together with DG. Reiß.
Nina Kalenbach is a curator, author, and arts administrator. As an art historian, her interests include art and the public sphere, urban development, cultures of remembrance, contemporary monuments, and participatory art forms. She has contributed to projects such as Clegg & Guttmann’s Monument of Monuments, indoor and outdoor discussions around the Open Debate Station, 2011, and Dirck Möllmann’s Hamburg Maschine, Stadtkuratorin Hamburg, 2019.
In the poster frames in the outdoor space of the GAK and at additional locations throughout Bremen over the coming weeks.
The public art project Gedächtnislücken #revisited. A Temporary Monument Addressing the Gaps in the Investigation of the NSU Case is funded by Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, Behörde für Kultur und Medien as well as Liebelt-Stiftung, Hamburg.