It started with drawing the picture of monuments in the new cemetery Giessen, we started the observation with: What are the shapes of them? What are the epitaphs on them? Where are they located? What are the relation of those monuments?

At the beginning of the visit, we found one monument hidden by the plant, but the word “unvergessen” attracted us to take a closer look and find more details. I asked myself, when the plant has already grown so wildly, does it mean, nobody cares about the deceased person any more? 

Gradually, we noticed different status of the monuments, some were well clear and tidy, accompanied with flowers and candles. Some were found broken, lying down on the ground, with the little red note “Vorsicht! Unfallgefahr ! Grabmal ist nicht mehr genügend standsicher!”Some has been through ages, in order to see the details, we have to use hand to clear the tree leaves above. Occasionally, we saw the gardener watering the flowers for specific monuments. We realized that people could also pay for a service here. Sometimes, when we were drawing the monuments, the family just came, we wanted to talk with them, but didn’t figure out how to speak.

An epitaph we found asked a significant question:

 “ Was sucht ihr lebendigen bei den Toten?”

 This is always haunting in our mind, why are we here? What do we want to know about the place?

 As for me, “suchen” is to “reveal” or “uncover”. I really like using my own hand to clear the tree leaves and read the details from the monument, to find traces of history. That’s why we create a scene for the exhibition—— All the small scraps of paper falling like the tree leaves down on the ground, covering our drawing.