Film, 36 min, DCP, 3:4
German and English

Daphne and Catherine work at the Natural history Museum of Berlin; the former is a taxidermist, the latter is a British writer who came to Berlin to research in the museum’s archive for her new novel. Her interest is an East German expedition from the 1960s, during which six tons of coral reef were violently extracted from the Cuban coast. The corals remain in the museum’s storage to this day. During their chance encounter, the two women start a rather unusual conversation.

The film challenges how institutions choose to represent and communicate scientific and historical facts. The life stories of the protagonists demonstrate that the presentation of facts is shaped by the desires of individuals: from the colonial ambitions of explorers in the Caribbean to an unlikely obsession of a museum director at the time of the First World War, as well as the fantasies of young taxidermists.

The Wet and the Dry, an essay about The Conspicuous Parts by Lotte Arndt for the publication Everything Passes Except the Past (Sternberg Press, 2021).