Topf und Söhne

Toph und Sohne, video still Pam Skelton, 2004
Toph und Sohne, video still Pam Skelton, 2004

A single channel video by Pam Skelton with music by Gentle Veincut
2004

The Besetztes Haus Erfurt is situated in the former factory Topf und Söhne that developed and manufactured (using slave labour) the crematoria ovens in camps including Auschwitz and Buchenwald during WW2. I visited the derelict factory with a video camera and spoke to Thomas a member of the squat konzertgruppe.squatnoize occupied the site since 2001 organising punk rock concerts as well as drawing attention to the history of the site through their website. The city council were not quite sure how to handle the situation.

This video draws attention to the site as a receptacle of memory linking the past to the present through the materiality of the derelict space of the ruined factory. Juxtapositioned along side the video is the soundtrack of a song performed by the band Gentle Veincut at a concert at Topf und Söhne’s a year before I made the video.