Publication
Preview
Passion_Play.pdf
In the 17th century, the citizens of Oberammergau made a covenant with God. If he halted the plague, they would reenact The Passion of Christ every ten years for eternity. When the deaths ceased, in 1634, the villagers fulfilled their promise and the first Passion Play was staged. Regine Petersen's image-text montage takes as its starting point Adolf Hitler's attendance of Oberammergau's tricentennial Jubilee in 1934. The narrative unfolds on two levels: that of the world's most prominent Passion Play and its inherent antisemitism, and that of daily life in the National Socialist village. Composed as an allegorical tale with satirical nuances,
Passion Play is a reprisal of History's passions for propaganda, populism and moral corruption in their shifting albeit ubiquitous manifestations.
»There is a theatrical nature to this book in the sense that Petersen is staging these materials as a performance, bringing them together for readers and creating space to reflect upon the relationship between the past and the present.« - James Downs
Purchase
Passion Play, The Eriskay Connection, 2023
Essays, Reviews
Susanne Fischer, Antisemitismus aus Leidenschaft, Jungle World, 2024
James Downs, Passion Play, Source Magazine, 2023
Arno Haijtema, Passion Play, De Volkskrant, 2023
Colin Pantall, Passion Play, PH Museum, 2023