Lieux de Mémoire and Desire presents five cinematic works of Maya Schweizer and examines how the artist approaches the relation of montage editing techniques with the concept of film and memorial and film as memorial – a relation which traces back to both the very beginnings of montage and incorporates the research of French historian Pierre Nora. Recurring moments in Schweizer’s multiform art practice revolve around the examination of subtly treated processes of memory regarding historic-political events in public space. In the places, structures and situations she investigates, historical threads intersect.

Supported by the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden on the occasion of the exhibition Der sterbende Soldat von Les Milles curated by Moritz Scheper. This publication was made possible with the support of the Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen and the Bureau des arts plastiques/Institut français.

Maya Schweizer studied at the School of Visual Arts in Leipzig and at the Berlin University of the Arts with Professor Lothar Baumgarten. Her solo exhibitions include The Same Story Elsewhere at the Westfälischen Kunstverein, Münster (2010); Metropolis. Report from China with Clemens von Wedemeyer at the Frankfurter Kunstverein (2011); Edith Seeshow’s Notes, Kunstverein Langenhagen (2013); and Der sterbende Soldat von Les Milles in the 45 cbm exhibition space at Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2015).