06 November 2012

Quilt in a graveyard

When in the St Matthias cemetery, I was amazed to see a quilt inside one of the mausoleums -
On the door is an explanation -
 The patchwork was inspired by the Names Project Aids Memorial Quilt (which, when last exhibited in 1996, consisted of 44,000 individual quilts). It commenorates Vincent, who died of Aids in 1993. None of the people who made it had sewn before, but all found the making, and the sharing of memories, to be useful in the grieving process.

The yellow section represents Vincent's childhood in France, and the blue section his later years (die wechselvoll aufregende Zeit) in Munich and Berlin. The quilt was meant to be part of the Names Project, but was never sent there. It found its place in the Mausoleum Mitscherlich -
an example of "active" memory, and a part of Berlin cemeteries' "Parcours des Erinnerns".

3 comments:

Lisa Chin said...

What an amazing tribute to their friend. Just beautiful!

Karen S Musgrave said...

Thanks for sharing this!

Plum Cox said...

How interesting. Thanks for sharing.