CPPD Festival “Voices Rising: Memory Unsilenced”
11 March 2026 · Altonaer Museum, Hamburg
In cooperation with the Altonaer Museum
As part of the festival, we will open the Dynamic Memory Lab “Nước Đức” in the presence of curators Dan Thy Nguyen and Nina Reiprich. The exhibition examines how history is remembered and narrated – but also silenced and repressed. At its centre are the experiences of the Viet-German community between flight and contract labour, between North and South Vietnam, East and West Germany, between histories of violence and self-empowerment.
For a long time, visibility in the context of memory politics was considered to be exclusively controllable – through curricula, museums, state commemorative days and subsidies. Who is remembered and how seemed to be institutionally determined, with memory as a top-down organised commodity. This model is now outdated. Visibility works fundamentally differently today. Social media enables everyone to produce content, curate it and generate attention. Visibility can no longer be controlled centrally – it arises in a decentralised, dynamic manner, in collaborative processes.
This decentralisation of memory has a disruptive effect. It expands the culture of remembrance with new voices and perspectives, but also raises questions about expertise and legitimacy. Who decides which stories are relevant? Which narratives are considered reliable? In this changed landscape, memory is no longer controlled solely by institutions – it must be reflected upon and taken responsibility for by communities themselves.
This requires new skills: communities need the tools, skills and knowledge to actively shape memory. Visibility thus becomes a collaborative process that goes beyond mere sharing – as cross-community sharing, in which expertise, technical resources and reach are exchanged between different groups. Memory becomes a living, networked process supported by many.
This networking holds the potential for an inclusive, participatory and self-determined politics of memory – a space in which visibility is not imposed, but lived, reflected upon and shared. Together, we want to work out which specific tools can support this new visibility, which risks need to be considered, and which resources are required.
Moderation von Avra Emin (Socialworker, Activist)
MEMORIAL CEREMONY | Mindful Remembrance: Châu & Lân
We invite you to a Buddhist memorial ceremony at the Altonaer Museum. Nguyễn Ngọc Châu and Đỗ Anh Lân were two young Vietnamese refugees who were murdered in 1980 in a racist arson attack by neo-Nazis at a shelter on Halskestraße in Hamburg Billbrook, one of the first right-wing terrorist murders in the Federal Republic of Germany.
In the presence of Thi Kim Thoa Ngu and Thoi Trong Ngu, survivors of the attack, we will pause in shared mindfulness to remember the lives of Nguyễn Ngọc Châu and Đỗ Anh Lân and commemorate them.
Opening | Dynamic Memory Lab »Nước Đức. Vietnamese – German Migration Hi | stories«
The Dynamic Memory Lab ‘Nước Đức’ examines the history of Vietnamese-German migration and explores the question of how history is remembered and recounted – or suppressed and concealed. The exhibition focuses on the memories and experiences of the Vietnamese-German community, which have moved and intersected over several decades between flight and contract work, between North and South Vietnam and East and West Germany, between a history of violence and self-empowerment.
Curated by Dan Thy Nguyen and Nina Reiprich, the Dynamic Memory Lab ‘Nước Đức’ creates a space for experiences that are rarely considered in context or in relation to one another, even though they are closely intertwined. Together, they form a field of tension in memory culture that encompasses all political and social directions of the Cold War and the post-reunification period – like a compass that reveals ideological breaks as well as biographical interconnections. The curators bring together contributions from artists and activists of the second generation of Vietnamese-German immigrants who are dedicated to exploring the history of Vietnamese-German migration from multiple perspectives. They invite and encourage us to understand this as part of our shared history, to question the boundaries in discourses on memory, and to strengthen memory as a function of our society.
Through artistic explorations, personal texts and interview sequences, they trace the complex experiences of the Vietnamese-German communities, revealing contradictions, ruptures and gaps. These experiences are recounted as a mutual frame of reference: as memories of a pluralistic community – and as memories of a pluralistic society. These are not linear narratives, but an interplay of different perspectives. In doing so, it asks central questions: Who is heard? Which memories are given space? And what remains in the shadows? And how can a shared, multi-perspective history be told? The Dynamic Memory Lab ‘Nước Đức’ opens up a space for new, multi-layered forms of shared memory.
The Dynamic Memory Lab ‘Nước Đức’ opened on 20 September 2025 in Rostock as part of the heimaten festival and in cooperation with the Volkstheater Rostock. After its first stop at the Documentation Centre on the NSU Complex in Chemnitz, the DML ‘Nước Đức’ will be on display at the Altonaer Museum from 11 March to 6 July 2026.
