Joscha Steffens
On the occasion of Steffens‘ solo show in the Goethe-Institut in Amsterdam, Arif Kornweitz spoke to Joscha Steffens about occultist SS cults and German family histories.
The project UCHRONIA [Totale Erinnerung] led Joscha Steffens into a community of SS-cult fanatics in the baltic states. Their members refuse to accept the defeat of the nazis in World War II and celebrate the period from 1941 to 1944, in which Estonia was part of the German Reich. Through the continuous re-enactment of historical battles, military drill camps and reconstructions of secret wonder weapons such as ‚Die Glocke’, also known as the Nazi Bell – an antigravity time machine – they overstep boarders of historical play in an absurd and dangerous extent. Steffens decided to translate this uncanny reality into a science-fiction game script and recorded it during nightly film shots with the members of the group.