Janna Maria Nandzik founded the non-profit organisation "The School of Death" in Berlin, Klara Charlotte Zeitz is a freelance author and writes for the weekly magazine Die Zeit, among others. She currently teaches the illustration class on the subject of "Memento Mori" at the Kunsthochschule Kassel together with the illustrator Robert Deutsch.
As different as the media of film, art and literature are, with which they deal with the finitude of life in a topical and accessible way, the field of tension that arises between them is equally charged. What is possible and what has to change so that we actively and diversely integrate mourning culture into our lives. What role does humour play in this? How can our view of meaningfulness change when we think of things from the end?

In this open discussion format at the Museum für Sepulkralkultur, Nandzik and Zeitz will focus on two main topics: on the one hand, the diverse rituals around the topic of farewell, mourning, remembrance, especially under the aspect of topicality and individuality. What new rituals do we need? How can we live feelings more openly and authentically? Here, both women draw from their own experiences. On the other hand, they will discuss the connection between death and "afterlife". What happens to our digital data when we die? Who manages the profiles of the dead? Can we make ourselves immortal through bots and digital resurrection? Is there a digital soul?

The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Dirk Pörschmann, Director of the Museum für Sepulkralkultur.

Admission: 6€  / 4 € reduced

Klara Charlotte Zeitz studied Art, Theater and Film History in Naples and lives as a freelance author and artist in Leipzig. She works at the interface between text, art and performance and will teach the illustration class on the topic of death at the Kunsthochschule Kassel together with the illustrator Robert Deutsch in the summer and winter semesters of 2021. In spring 2021, she will publish her poems in Leipzig's urban space with a grant from the Kulturstiftung Sachsen.

Her main topics are identity and independence, equality and women's rights, mortality and memory culture, sexuality and corporeality. She is politically involved, among other things, on the board of Phia e.V., an association that campaigns against violence against women. In 2020 she was a scholarship holder of the Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki with her novel project "Laskarina" and in the past she published short stories and essays with "PS - Politisch Schreiben", various international magazines and is guest author of the "ZEIT ONLINE" column "10 nach 8".

www.klaracharlottezeitz.com

Janna Maria Nandzik works in Berlin as a freelance screenwriter and director of TV series. She studied film studies, art history and modern German Literature and loves to combine high culture with popular culture, as well as tragedy with comedy. With actor and producer Christian Ulmen, she ran two film production companies. Under this umbrella she wrote for the mockumentary "Ulmen.TV", created and produced her first TV series "Die Snobs – Sie können auch ohne Dich" (ZDFneo) and wrote and directed the German-French transmedia series "About:Kate" (ARTE). In the meantime, she works independently. Most recently for the comedy series "Jerks" (Maxdome/ProSieben), the teen drama "Druck" (ZDFneo/funk) and the historical drama "The Empress" (Netflix). In 2017, she founded the non-profit organization "The School of Death" in Berlin, which offers various analog and digital workshops and conversation salons on the topic of death and dying. The project has set itself the task of integrating the preoccupation with the end of life into everyday life and placing it in a contemporary context.

www.jannanandzik.com | www.theschoolofdeath.com