WDEC 2026 at the Inner Neustadt Cemetery

On 28 May 2026, a film screening by renowned artist Natalia Bougai took place at Inner Neustadt Cemetery in Dresden, Germany.

About the event

As part of the Week of Discovering European Cemeteries 2026, the organization Women In Remembrance Culture e.V. (WIRC) hosted a special event — a film screening by the renowned artist Natalia Bougai — on 28 May 2026 at 19:00 at the Inner Neustadt Cemetery (Friedensstraße 2, 01097 Dresden, Germany).

Natalia Bougai grew up in Central Russia and Ukraine and studied History and German Studies, as well as Artistic Photography and Media Art, at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts (HGB). In her project d wie dora (“d as in Dora”), she embarked on a deeply personal search for traces of her own identity within the mementos left behind by concentration camp prisoners during the Second World War.

Based on surviving autobiographical novels, testimonies, and diaries written by former prisoners, the film presented their thoughts exclusively in textual form. In the film, Bougai’s reflections on place, time, and her own presence within them transformed into mirror images of her inner world: “A silent conspiracy of the speakers with themselves, to preserve their self-determination and dignity.”

Following the screening, a panel discussion exploring the film’s themes and historical context took place. The entire event lasted approximately one hour.

For additional information or questions, please contact naito@wirc.network.

WDEC 2025 in Dresden

As part of WDEC 2025, the Inner Neustadt Cemetery in Dresden will host a special evening featuring a screening of the documentary GOING TO ÚSTÍ and an artist’s talk with Pastor Björn Fischer.

About the event

On the evening of May 29, 2025, from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM, the Inner Neustadt Cemetery in Dresden will host a special screening of the documentary GOING TO ÚSTÍ, followed by an artist’s talk with Pastor Björn Fischer. The event, organized by Women In Remembrance Culture, invites the public to reflect on forgotten histories, cultural memory, and the role of art in dealing with the past.

The documentary follows Dresden artist Susan Donath, who has been engaged with sepulchral culture for many years. In this short film, she is accompanied by documentary filmmaker Valérie Madoka Naito as she takes care of a German-Czech grave in the Střekov Cemetery in Ústí nad Labem, which she has been tending as part of an art project since 2008.

About the Střekov Cemetery

The Střekov Cemetery, the largest cemetery in Ústí nad Labem (Czech Republic), is divided into two areas: well-tended graves of the Czech population and crypts of the former German population. This division is particularly evident on the western wall of the cemetery. In the 19th century, crypts were built there, most of which were sold or leased to the German population until the beginning of the 20th century. In the wake of political events – the Munich Agreement of 1938 with the incorporation of the Sudeten German territories, the occupation of Bohemia by the German Wehrmacht in 1939 and the Second World War – the German population was expelled after 1945.

For the cemetery, this meant that almost all German graves had not been tended or maintained by their owners since 1945. The cemetery administration took care of the graves on a temporary basis. To this day, the question of what will happen to the graves remains unanswered.

Additional information

Contact person:

• Valérie Madoka Naito (naito@wirc.network)

Websites:

• www.wirc.network
• www.naito.eu
• www.susandonath.com
• www.die-bilder-kommen-zurück.com
• www.neustaedter-friedhoefe.de

Social media:

• @donath_susan 

Photos from the event

WDEC 2023 at the Inner Neustadt Cemetery

We invite you to a presentation of three short films that will take place at the Inner Neustadt Cemetery in Dresden, Germany.

On Friday, 26 May 2023, at 7pm, a presentation of three short films will take place at the Inner Neustadt Cemetery, carried out by Valérie Madoka Naito.

The films that will be presented are:

1. "Death Never Dies" from Valérie Madoka Naito. It is a film essay from 2011 about a Cemetery at Dillingen Saar and starts with the story of a man who has just returned in 1956 from Russian captivity and finds his name on this graveyard.

2. "Agnosis" from Anita Müller. The film was awarded the German Short film prize in 2012 in Munich. The experimental film is about a student in Odessa who descends into the familiar catacombs of a former mine to meditate on Orthodox Christmas Day 2012. Since then, he has disappeared without a trace.

3. "Dead At The Moment" from Thomas Wendrich. The film won 1st prize at Interfilm Festival Berlin in 2004. It tells the story of strong-minded hillbillies in a cross-generational comedy. The characters reveal to us in a farmer's kitchen with a mischievous wink that the family has recently had to cope with small and larger catastrophes, disappointments, and setbacks in life. The main character, the slightly age-addled farmer Franz, is still so strong in his senses that he can enjoy the "autumn sun" of his life.

You can find more information about the event at www.naito.eu.