Das sowjetische Hauptquartier

This catalogue documents the exhibition Das sowjetische Hauptquartier (The Soviet Headquarters) by artist Sven Johne, taking it as a starting point for a retrospective look at his filmic oeuvre. Since the early 2000s, Johne has developed works in text, photography, and video that map the wounds of post-Socialist histories, locating feelings of political powerlessness within them. In his new film Das sowjetische Hauptquartier, produced by Fluentum, a failed ideology meets its undead counterpart, as childlike, idealized memories of the East collide with the horrors of actually existing capitalism.

In addition to gathering documentation of the exhibition, this catalogue is two things: A reader that assembles a selection of Johne’s film scripts and presents them as short stories, engaging with them as literature, as well as a comprehensive index of his film and video works. In a conversation with Katalin Krasznahorkai, Johne discusses the political realities that form the basis of his fictional stories, while an essay by Daniel Völzke traces various through lines in his decades-long practice.