Picturing the Pandemic
Open Wednesdays to Sundays, 1 - 6pm. Admission free.
The global pandemic has dramatically changed all of our lives?
How did people all over the world experience the Covid19 pandemic?
What are the consequences of the pandemic, personally and for our society?
With the Pandemic Journaling Project, two U.S. scientists created a digital journal in May 2020 in which people fom all over the world shared their experiences of loneliness, sadness, exclusion or even happiness in times of the pandemic. Nearly 2,000 people from 55 countries around the world have contributed almost 3,000 images.
The Mark Twain Center for Transatlantic Relations is now showing selected photographic contributions from this collection combined with numerous documents with which Heidelberg residents participated in the project.
The photographs and objects on display allow an intensive look at the whole range of human impressions and experiences over the past three years: of loss and grief, restriction of individual freedoms, the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement as well as quiet happiness of fellow humanity. Photography, painting, diary writing or even handcrafts served as means of expression to share individual pandemic experiences with each other, to discover creativity and to develop their own attitude.
The exhibition was realized in cooperation with the University of Connecticut and Brown University in the USA and is now being shown in Germany and Mexico City in addition to stations in the USA.
Background
The Pandemic Journaling Project provided a digital platform for people around the world to record their experiences of loneliness, sadness, exclusion and happiness during the pandemic. History was written by many people together. Current contributions to the journal focus on the consequences of the pandemic.
The Pandemic Journaling Project was initiated by Sarah Willen and Katherine Mason from the University of Connecticut and Brown University in the USA. Since May 2020, the Pandemic Journaling Project has created a space for international dialogue and exchange: a unique collection that describes the social, economic, and human rights consequences of the global pandemic from an individual perspective. You can find examples here:
