Michael Mller & Lukas Tpfer

This book is dedicated to works by Michael Mller (*1970) commenting on four paintings by Gerhard Richter (*1932) entitled "Birkenau"; they aim to reappraise the cruel historical fact of Auschwitz II/Birkenau extermination camp in various artistic forms. Direct as the critical comments on Richter may be, they are accompanied by many less conspicuous, quieter, one might even say wounded works by Mller, which were shown at the Museum im Kulturspeicher Wrzburg in 2022/23 and will be exhibited at St. Matthews Church in Berlins Kulturforum in spring 2023 to coincide with the publication of this book. The thematic focus of both exhibitions is the so-called "Sonderkommando", a work detachment of selected Jewish prisoners from 1942 to 1944/45, who were forced to prepare for and clear up after the extermination of their fellow human beings under SS supervision and facing a constant threat to their lives. The book documents the key works of this demanding artistic investigation by Michael Mller and contextualises them in a detailed essay by art historian Lukas Tpfer (*1988). Look inside