The sweet taste of revenge — Die Rache der K.

Soviet-Jewish and Korean traditions of commemorating the deceased are interwoven in this transmedial installation. In Korean tradition, an ancestral table is set up for the anniversary of a person passed. It is covered with items and food that once belonged to the life of the deceased. In this work, objects from the life of the beautician K., are placed, comparably, onto an ancestral table. K., however, was born in the Soviet Union and later emigrated to Germany as a Jewish contingent refugee. The wall reliefs tell a life marked by blows of fate, which, whilst one could describe as ‘typical’ of Soviet-Jewish tradition, was atypically hard. The events depicted in the wall reliefs, include the witnessing of the death of K’s mother by fire and her stillbirth. These stand in stark contrast to the colorful, appetizing, and sweet-smelling world of K. Her sweetness symbolizes the non-violent revenge of the good life. At the same time, the work sees itself as a form of revenge, creating space for the telling of otherwise unheard stories and giving a face to supposedly insignificant fates.