Bodies for Control and Profit | SS 2026
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In cooperation with the Friends’ Association and the management of the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum, the Bonvicini class’s collective research project focuses on the topic of forced prostitution in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during the Nazi dictatorship. The goal is to develop artistic forms that commemorate and give visibility to this forgotten victim group, ideally materializing in a monument on the site at Sachsenhausen.
During the Nazi dictatorship, brothels were set up in ten of the larger concentration camps, including Sachsenhausen near Berlin, where women were forced into prostitution for selected prisoners. The camp brothel in Sachsenhausen was built in August 1944 as an annex next to the pathology department in the infirmary. Seventeen women were imprisoned there as prostitutes.
Only in 2002 was sexual violence officially recognized as both a crime against humanity and a war crime. This also led to a new evaluation of forced prostitution. In 2020, the German Bundestag formally acknowledged the victim groups of the “criminals” (green triangle) and the “asocials” (black triangle). Most of the women forced into prostitution belonged to these groups, which are now recognized as “forgotten victims.”
After the war, very few of these women were able to speak about their physical and psychological suffering, and almost none applied for compensation for their imprisonment. According to current research, no compensation was ever paid for the harm and humiliation caused by forced prostitution.
The subject touches on relations of power and exploitation that affected women. Alongside the transmission of historical knowledge, the class will focus on contemporary forms of remembrance and on exploring artistic and design-based ways of creating an appropriate commemoration.
The class also welcomes participants from other programs who are interested in the topic.
Planned meetings and events during the Summer Semester include: 21.04.2026 UdK, Aula
1 PM Meeting with Dorothea Mladenova and Yuko Okamoto
5 PM Meeting with Joanna Warsza and Timea Junghaus at the Memorial to Europe's Sinti and Roma Murdered Under Nazism, followed by a welcome at the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) by Emese Molnár
22.04.2026 UdK, Aula
1 PM Presentation and discussion with Johanna Adam about the exhibition Sex Work at the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn
16.05.2026 UdK, room 004
5 PM Class presentations and internal crit-session
18.05.2026 UdK, room 150
5 PM Presentation by Robert Sommer followed by discussion, Q&A
26.05.2026 Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück
9 AM Whole day trip to the Ravensbrück Memorial Museum
11 AM Meeting with Angelika Meyer on the site of the camp brothel
13.06.2026 UdK, room 110
3:30 PM Presentation and discussion of project ideas with Susanne von Falkenhausen
27.06.2026 UdK, room 102
3:30 PM Class presentations and final feedback / fine-tuning
02.07.2025 UdK, Hörsaal 158
4 PM Final presentation of the memorial idea, with the participation of Barbara Gstaltmayr, Astrid Ley, Tom Mustroph and Mareike Otters.
Participants’ info:
Dorothea Mladenova studied Japanese Studies, Bulgarian Studies, and Sociology at the University of Leipzig and at Chiba University in Japan. She completed her PhD on the self-optimization of one’s own death (shūkatsu 終活), which she defended in 2019. She is currently researching the transnational “comfort women” movement. Her focus is on the critical examination of contemporary phenomena in Japan using methods from Cultural Studies.
Yuka Okamoto is a journalist and writer whose work focuses on the transnational “comfort women” (Trostfrauen) issue and related questions of memory, gender, and historical justice in East Asia. Through her writing and reporting, she engages with survivor testimonies, public discourse, and ongoing debates about responsibility and remembrance. Her work contributes to broader discussions on historical violence and its representation in contemporary media and society.
Joanna Warsza is the City Curator of Hamburg, as well as editor, writer and mother. She often works outside of the protection of white cubes, believing in public art as a way of overcoming isolation and hermetism of contemporary art. Some of her core interests lie around the ideas of performativity and planetarity, art and activism, the public sphere in a post-migrant society, and the questions of how to build Eastern European critical confidence.
Tímea Junghaus is a Hungarian art historian, curator, and cultural activist. She advocates for greater recognition of minority art—particularly the art of the Roma. In 2007, she curated the first international Roma Pavilion, Paradise Lost, at the 52nd Venice Biennale. Tímea Junghaus is a member of the advisory board of RomArchive, a Roma-curated digital archive dedicated to the arts and culture of Sinti and Roma.
Emese Molnár is a curator and cultural practitioner working in the field of contemporary art with a focus on Roma representation and cultural memory. She has been involved in projects connected to the RomArchive, contributing to efforts that document, preserve, and make visible Roma artistic and cultural production.
Johanna Adam is a curator at the Bundeskunsthalle. Her recent exhibition Sex Work addressed contemporary perspectives on sex work and its representation in art and society. She is currently moving to the Sprengel Museum Hannover, where she will continue her curatorial work in contemporary art.
Angelika Meyer is a German historian and educator at the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp Memorial, where she works in historical education and research. Her work focuses on the history of women in concentration camps, including forced labor, persecution, and gender-specific violence.
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