Tourist Cards
Weimar, Germany April of 2006

Background
Weimar actively invites tourists to join the worship of classic German culture through monuments celebrating Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche, Gropius and Liszt who were all at various times associated with Weimar.  During 1999 Weimar was awarded the title of “Cultural Capital of Germany” and received funding for numerous architectural restorations celebrating its past association with these renowned cultural figures.  However, there is also a somber feeling of distance from other aspects of Weimar’s cultural history that I encountered during my stay in Weimar. The remnants of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp are visible from any elevation within Weimar; architectural alterations that occurred during the Nazi era still echo through the physical environment; and the social dislocations arising from 1989’s reunification of East and West Germany are still evident. One can feel the weight of these past events after spending an amount of time looking around Weimar, but I felt that sensitive issues like these are not publicly addressed.

Project
The Tourist Cards express my view of living in Germany’s “Culture Capital” where the proximity to past events continue to directly affect the relationship of the residents to their public space. Each Tourist Card presents images of familiar Weimar buildings with the windows digitally removed. My intention was to create a symbolic expression the subtle undertones of what I felt, living in Weimar.