Moritz Fehr

The Invisible Choir

Two Site-Specific Sound Installations (2020)

Data Acquisition Fehr

The Invisible Choir, Wardens House, Ravensbrück Memorial Museum, 2025

The site-specific sound installation The Invisible Choir examines the role singing played in the resistance and everyday life in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. In Ravensbrück, songs were not only sung secretly, but also under duress and threat of punishment. At the same time, there were songs like “Silent Night” that were tolerated by the guards. Thus, singing was not only an expression of grief, consolation, encouragement or protest, but was also used by the guards as a means of exerting psychological violence against the prisoners.

Moritz Fehr selected nine pieces that exemplify the various functions of singing in the camp. These were newly arranged and recorded in a partly improvised way. Songs that had to be sung under duress were deliberately left out. The new recordings form the material for the sound installation, which can be heard in the former private rooms of the supervisors (on the balcony and in the kitchenette of one of the residential buildings). By placing the voices in these domestic spaces, the work also thematizes the spatial proximity between the private lives of the guards and the camp in their immediate vicinity.

The installation is presented as part of the exhibition project Bilder, Stimmen und Klischees: SS-Aufseherinnen des Frauen- Konzentrationslagers – Künstlerische Interventionen in der Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück was made possible with the support of the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture, Brandenburg, and the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Project website, Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück (Ravensbrück Memorial Museum)

Work Details
Two site-specific Sound Installations (on the balcony and in the tea kitchen of a former wardens house)

Vocals and Improvisations:
Julia Dörr, Sina Jacka, Anna Kortmann,
Salome Muhr, Johanna Sahm, Elena Elsa Tsantidis, Lydia L. Weißert

Choir Conducting and Arrangements:
Wolfgang Tacke

Duration:
4 hours (inlcuding intermissions)

The Invisible Choir Moritz Fehr

The Invisible Choir, Installation View, Ravensbrück Memorial Museum, 2025