Tragedies and hope: Gnaudschun's moving photos from Onna

Tragedies and hope: Gnaudschun's moving photos from Onna

Haus am Lützowplatz, 10785 Berlin, Deutschland - The exhibition "Voices that are looking for" by photographer Göran Gnaudschun presents impressive portraits from the Italian village onna. This show, which can be seen in the house on Lützowplatz in Berlin-Schöneberg until August 24, 2025, illuminates the tragic events that shaped the village. rbb24 was reported by Wehrmachts soldier, which a massacre took, while Dorf in 2009 was almost completely destroyed by a devastating earthquake.

gnaudschun has dealt intensively with the story and the inhabitants of Onna. After the earthquake, in which 40 of the approximately 300 villagers died, he visited the village nine years later and found it as a ruin field. He asked the villagers for permission to portray them, which led to a deep emotional documentation of grief and resistance. An example in the exhibition is Dora's story, which was buried both in 1944 and 2009. Gnaudschun himself emphasizes that the exhibition does not have a documentary claim, but wants to create an atmosphere and associations.

The memory of the village community

The memories and experiences of the villagers are central to Gnaudschun's work. In an interview with the Goethe Institute Rome, the photographer said that the memory of the victims of the 1944 massacre is alive in Onna. The residents commemorate their “martyrs” and carry these painful stories in their collective memory. This topic is also reflected in the exhibition, which shows not only portraits, but also landscapes and symbolic images. Gnaudschun mentioned that the openness of people, to share their traumatic experiences, deeply impressed him.

In multicultural contextualization, aspects of memory research come into play. The article on Academia.edu illuminates how certain events are anchored in the collective memory, while others are forgotten. Transnational souvenir practices have strengthened in recent decades, and the "Memory Boom" clearly showed how important history is for future generations. Onna's experiences illustrate this process and ask not only to remind the past, but also to actively integrate it into the present.

The opening of the exhibition is not only regarded as a memory of the past tragedies, but also as a step to strengthen German-Italian relations. This is reinforced by the commitment of the Goethe Institute and the Organization Onna Onlus, which have been working on cultural projects for years that go beyond local history.