| History and memory are seldom directly experienced. Re-enactments represent an artistic scrutinization of media images, replacing these images with a direct and often visceral experience while at the same time pointing out the way in which media shapes our collective memory. In a re-enactment, the audience, which normally remains passive, or at a certain distance from the documented event, becomes either immediate witnesses of a (repeated historical) event that unfolds in front of their eyes, or protagonists in an action in which they actively participate. | 
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Inke Arns and Gabriele Horn are the curators of History Will Repeat Itself, on view at KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin from November 18 to January 13, 2008.
The exhibition History Will Repeat Itself focuses on current strategies of re-enactment in contemporary (media) art and performance, and presents the positions and strategies of 23 international artists.
In general, the term re-enactment is used to describe a historically accurate re-creation of socially relevant events. In a re-enactment, the audience, which normally remains passive, or is at a certain distance from the documented event, becomes either immediate witnesses of a (repeated historical) event that unfolds in front of their eyes, or protagonists in an action in which they actively participate. Re-enactments have become more and more popular in recent years, similar to other pop cultural practices such as “Living History”, or role-playing games. The re-creation of historical battles or past important events seem to exert a fascination particularly because they provide the opportunity to gain a different entry into history by re-experiencing it.
In contemporary art there has been an increasing number of artistic re-enactments. For example, in British artist Jeremy Deller’s work, The Battle of Orgreave, Deller worked with former miners, police, and actors to re-enacted a violent clash between miners and police from the year 1984. Unlike popular historical re-enactments, artistic re-enactments are not performative re-stagings of historic situations and events that occurred a long time ago. Instead, artistic re-enactments focus on events (often traumatic ones) that are viewed as very important to the present. Artistic re-enactments do not simply affirm what has happened in the past, but question the present by taking recourse to historical events that have left their traces in collective memory.
History and memory are seldom directly experienced, but more often mediated through media. As a result, re-enactments also represent an artistic scrutinization of media images, replacing these media-based images with a direct and often visceral experience while at the same time pointing out the way in which media shapes our collective memory.
History Will Repeat Itself is a cooperation between Hartware MedienKunstVerein in Dortmund, and KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, and is the first comprehensive exhibition in Germany dealing with the topic, or strategy, of re-enactment.
