"When will it finally be like it never was?“

A musical journey through countries that no longer exist. With real and speculative souvenirs from the GDR, Yugoslavia and the EU.

This episode is currently in post-production. More information coming soon.

In "Nostalgia" we deal with the phenomenon of collective nostalgia, especially in the context of the former GDR (Ostalgia) and Yugoslavia (Yugonostalgia).

Where does this longing for another time, for another place where everything was supposedly better come from? Is it the unfulfilled socialist dreams that still fascinate us today? Values like solidarity that sound like empty shells when uttered in the European Parliament?
Can nostalgia be more than an expression of malaise with the present, more than an escape strategy or melancholic recollection?

To find answers, we open the drawers of the grandparents of our protagonists Nadja Lindner from Bautzen (former GDR) and Višnja Sretenović from Belgrade (former Yugoslavia). We talk to their families and relate these personal, ambivalent experiences of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of Yugoslavia to a sociological analysis of nostalgia. The voice of the narrator Isabel Bröckerhoff accompanies us through the radio play. She oscillates between information and poetic thoughts and leads us from memories to expert interviews through the musical feature. We listen to the cassettes of the bands that no longer exist, from countries that no longer exist, and slowly our body temperature rises. A side-effect of nostalgic feelings. Thus heated up, we turn back to our question: Can nostalgia be prospective as well? And if so, how? To this end, we invite people from all over Europe to take part in a thought experiment: What would you miss if the EU no longer existed? What kind of mementos of the European Union would you keep in your nostalgia drawers? And can these speculative souvenirs lead to a different future? 

Credits:

Concept, artistic direction, speaker : Heike Bröckerhoff
Artistic collaboration, text, speakers : Isabel Bröckerhoff, Nadja Lindner, Višnja Sretenović
Sound Design: Alex Geell
Speculative European Anthem: Don Lupo & the Kinks (Nils Tresselt/Max Nawroth)

Interviews with: Frank Lindner, Dr. Christine Kirchhoff, Prof. Dr. Sighard Neckel, Vesna Sretenović and Djordje Sretenović

EU drawers: Lisa Albrecht, Sarah Böger, Umberto Cutillo, Teresa Dobysz, Bernat Guerrero Dorado, Thomas Heinser, Lisa Malmheden, Okka Lou Mathis, Peter Szillat, Florian Wieczorek

With extracts from the podcast ”Remembering Yugoslavia“ by Peter Korchnak in conversation with Tanja Petrović and Mitja Velikonja

Music by Wolf Biermann, Arsen Dedic/Ivica Bobinec, Bijelo Dugme, City, Denis&Denis, Electricni Orgazam, Gerhard Gundermann, Nina Hagen, Karat, Sladjana Milosevic, Oktoberclub, Partizanski pevski zbor, Plavi Orkestar, Puhdys, Sandow, Šarlo Akrobata, Sonja Schmidt, Gerhard Schöne, Slobodna Europa, Angelika Weiz and G.V.O

Additional Sounds: 1000 kleine Dinge (GDR commercial) and President Tito Talks To UN (1963)

Inspired by Svetlana Boym.

References, Links:

Podcast Remembering Yugoslavia von Peter Korchnak

Svetlana Boym: Nostalgia

Primož Krašovec: (Yugo)nostalgia

Višnja Sretenović - Recherche zu Goli Otok

Alex Geell - Sounddesign