Historical "Spaces"

Sites and spaces are subject to constant change. This can be natural or caused by humans. The transformation of a space cannot be separated from human perception. In order to be able to reconstruct historical developments of spaces or sites, historians use images, photos or maps whenever possible. But such sources are always subjectively shaped by the perception of the person who created them.

The field of critical cartography deals with the question of the perception of "spaces". Critical cartography assumes that spaces and sites are shaped by perceptions and that there is no "one" truth. Accordingly, maps do not depict reality but the effects of social structures and can shape social structures as producers of social realities.¹

“[It] examines the foundations of knowledge for our decisions, situates knowledge in specific historical epochs and geographical contexts, resists and challenges established categories of our thought, and shows how the truth claims of knowledge are enforced within specific frameworks that are closely interwoven with power."²

In contrast to texts, images and maps are often interpreted as representations of reality and thus "true" sensory impressions.³ However, without the historical and social context, a map provides little information about what happened at a place. By deconstructing power relations that influence and explain social structures, events can be placed in a historical and social context. In this context, deconstruction means doubting the truth of an image or map, since truth or facts usually only apply to the space that is culturally shaped by this truth.⁴ This does not mean that this truth applies to other cultural spaces.

When looking at a map, it should therefore be borne in mind that its production is shaped by social and political processes and is reproduced by maps.⁵ Cartography thus reflects the conditions of social classes and hierarchies as well as political developments.⁶ At the same time, the perception of the readership is influenced by existing power relations. Rhetoric determines which readers are addressed and is thus equal to the content of the map.⁷

The following exhibition depicts the transformation of the site, the former extermination camp and today's memorial site Maly Trascjanec, which can be seen in part in the picture here. With the help of information texts, photographs and maps, the transformation process is illustrated and is intended to make clear how strongly social and political structures can transform places; but also how serious as well as fleeting these transformations can be. The division into successive transformation phases illustrates the influence of the phases on each other.

Responsible for content: Charlotte Vöhl

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_{¹ Cf. Glasze, Kritische Kartographie, p. 182.}

_{² Ibid., p. 187.}

_{³ Cf. ibid., p. 185.}

_{⁴ Cf. Harley, Das Dekonstruieren der Karte, p. 5-6.}

_{⁵ Cf. ibid., p. 8.}

_{⁶ Cf. ibid., p. 10.}

_{⁷ Cf. ibid., p. 14-15.}