Program series – In Medias Res
In Medias Res: Media, (Still) Moving
2021 – 2023
The exhibition series In Medias Res: Media, (Still) Moving marked the first time Fluentum focused on the political, visual, and discursive dimensions inscribed into the historically charged architecture of its premises. It featured the three exhibitions Time Without End (September 2021), UNICA by Anja Kirschner (April 2022), and Trash The Musical by Loretta Fahrenholz (April 2023) as well as a series of publications. In Medias Res: Media, (Still) Moving was co-curated by Dennis Brzek and Junia Thiede.
Fluentum's exhibition space is located in the imposing main building of a former military facility. Constructed between 1936 and 1938 during the era of National Socialism by architect Fritz Fuß as "Luftgaukommando III," the building served a key infrastructural role for the German Luftwaffe. After World War II, U.S. forces utilized the building as their military and intelligence headquarters until the last GI departed in 1994.
As a historical site, the building is a testament to both the violent Nazi regime and the Western Allies' democratic impetus, expressed in its ostensible architecture and the legacy of its respective uses. As the title suggests, In Medias Res: Media, (Still) Moving understands Fluentum’s engagement with the moving image to be continually embedded within these temporal pulls. Drawing on the building's indexicality, the exhibitions and publications use media to juxtapose historical periods and their monuments with specific moments of the present, and investigate how meanings, histories, and places are produced discursively.