As the focus of the research project for her residency A Roof above your Head at the ZK/U (partner place of la mire), I wish to undertake research on the mountains of rubble erected in Berlin after the Second World War, known as « Schuttberge » or « Trümmerberge ». Sensitive to architecture, its materials and its past history, I want to go and meet these artificial eminences, now covered in vegetation, on the outskirts of the city by collecting photographs and materials in order to probe the city of Berlin and its history. Between mineral and vegetal harvest, my wish is to shed light on the origin of these mountains of rubble made by a large female workforce, the women of the ruins « Trümmerfrauen ». Attached to the notions of disappearance and reconstruction in my work, the « Schuttberge » embody the paradox of a visible desire to disappear. A notorious example, which could be the basis for further exploration, is the burial of the foundations of a Nazi university under Teufelsberg.
Anne Houel makes architecture, its history and its materials the subject of her work. Sensitive to the paradox of disappearance, she questions the field of construction, ruin and its future. She draws from the field of architecture a “memory-matter” necessary for the implementation of her drawings, sculptures and installations. Often made of images or borrowed forms, her constructions materialise a work of memory. Like reminiscences that refuse to fade away, her works evoke “ames-témoins” amplified by the second life.