Peter Pflügler: Hans - or - Don't Bury Me In The Grave Of My Father

Hans – or – Don’t Bury Me In The Grave Of My Father explores denied justice and the possibility of rewriting the past. It begins with an archive of more than a thousand negatives left by Hans (1911–1997), great-granduncle of artist Peter Pflügler: for fifty years Hans obsessively photographed himself as time, technologies and settings changed, while a deep, unreadable shadow remained in his gaze. Using this material, Peter initiates an investigation: who was Hans, and why was he pushed aside? The clues reveal a suppressed truth – the violence he suffered from his father, which isolated him and led to his unheard wish not to be buried next to him. Peter recognises echoes of his own story, finding patterns of pain and silence within the family.

His new images – staged scenes and self-portraits – attempt to speak to an absent figure, restoring Hans’s complexity and dignity, leading toward the project’s declared future conclusion: granting him the burial he desired. The exhibition centres on a three-channel video installation intertwining the work of both authors and embracing the project’s evolving nature, developed during PhMuseum’s Criticae 2024/25 masterclass. Here photography emerges as an open process: not just recording, but transforming life. The project asserts the responsibility of the living: it is never too late to revisit stories and make them more just.