"Why do you know what you know about history?"

Different countries have different cultures of connecting to their pasts. There are various lobbies that utilize all kinds of historical events and themes for their goals today. Only sometimes claims over “true history” lead to open conflicts − like in the case of the Nanking Massacre and its depiction in school books in Japan. Even in Taiwan this massacre has been erased from the history books in 2007 − for various reasons.
School-books and public monuments are the most direct and contested forms of commemoration − usually created by a government in order to establish an “official version” of history. Sometimes it reflects the opinion of historians regardless of their political interests, sometimes it does not.

post theater presents a paradox: an ephemeral, non-lasting and mobile monument with changing meanings and varying usages. Normally monuments have one clear message meant to reach into the future. post theater’s monument is the opposite − it is a monument for all missing monuments, for ignored and suppressed historic events. It shows how connected the histories of seemingly remote places can be − and how globalization re-renders the perception of what defines “world history”. In “Monuments for Safety Zones” (MSZ) post theater proposes a fragile, inflatable and video - monument that questions presently existing monuments as well as concepts of future, utopian monuments. This installation is both a site and a performer − a theater performance and an interactive sculpture.

post theater will moderate “MSZ” in 2007 and 2008 as an international collaboration with artists and institutions in Berlin, Taipei, Tokyo and possibly beyond.

<Story>
Act I
2088 - The story starts with a hazardous blast − some people found refuge in a monument − the monument to commemorate the Nanking Massacre in Tokyo. They crawl out of the foundations of the monument to see that everything upper ground is gone. They share what they read downstairs. They had some days to read before they dared coming out. What they say is what we see in Act II.

Act II
The story is the journey of two artists to Taiwan, Singapore, China and Japan to find traces of World War II and how it resonates in contemporary affairs. Their research took place in 2008. They met several people dealing with school books and monuments − people who wanted to commemorate different aspects of the past, including the Nanking Massacre, the Nanking Safety Zone, the Japanese occupation of Singapore and the Colonial rule in Taiwan. One of the people they meet is the Japanese architect who later (and because he met the two artists) designed the monument for the Nanking Massacre. His autobiography is the voice-over narration of Act II.

Act III
Back in 2088 − shortly before the blast. Some people seek refuge in the monument. Among them one Taiwanese tourist and a Singaporean Immagrant to Japan. They discuss the amazing history of the the monument when they visit - untill the blast happens.