In transformation #1

Adenauer Straße is located in the north of Detmold, adjacent to the former Hohenloh barracks. Because the neighbourhood was built in the 1960s to house British soldiers, the area around Adenauer Straße is known as the British Quarter.

This neighbourhood is shaped by history. Since 2014, I have been documenting developments in the area from time to time: the withdrawal of the British in June 2014, the creation of the central accommodation facility and the arrival of refugees in September 2014 and up to 2018, the mobilisation of civil society, the city's plans and now the accommodation of refugees from Ukraine.

The situations of upheaval that have characterised recent years are reflected in this neighbourhood. A situation of upheaval means a moment of fundamental change, where you don't know how the situation will develop, where everyday life and the familiar are overturned. In many places, the encounter with the foreign was characteristic of the place.

Former barracks neighbourhoods are called "transformation sites" in Germany. They are temporarily empty spaces that manifest acute needs and hardships.

The first time I entered the English settlement, I felt a mixture of ... The settlement made the area into a unit, you entered a world of its own.

Since the departure of the British, the empty space has made visions and possibilities possible. In this place of transformation, the potential, but also the will of the city to do something (or not to do something) becomes visible.

How can I capture this collective memory? What recordings can bear witness to the development of the place? How do people talk about the area today?

I pursue these questions with the research "in transformation". I immerse myself in the recordings from back then and listen to the voices of Andreas, Shergo and .... I interview actors from the city administration, politics and civil society and try to capture aspects of this neighbourhood.

Concept, text work, sound collages, interviews - Marianne Cornil