Room installation featuring simultaneous video projections and more by Marina Ludemann, Ottjörg A.C., Thomas Gaschler and Nina DeLudemann. The exhibition has so far been shown in Germany in Berlin (2025) as well as in Mosbach (2026, as part of the ‘Out of Mosbach’ series organised by the Kunstverein Neckar-Odenwald). The next exhibition will take place in December 2026 at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum in Hanoi. The installation explores the themes of migration, loss, memory and homecoming. The starting point is an extraordinary family history, which begins with an assassination attempt on the German Emperor in 1906 and leads via North Africa to Indochina and back to Europe. The protagonist is Lina Ludemann. The daughter of a Foreign Legionnaire and a necromancer, she returns to Vietnam at the age of 80 in search of traces of her past. The story is reflected upon from a family perspective by Lina’s daughter, Marina; her son-in-law, Ottjörg; and her granddaughter, Nina. Thomas Gaschler provides an external viewpoint. This interplay gives rise to a multifaceted dialogue about cultural differences, belonging and the individual’s place in history.

‘... a visual exploration with striking imagery, which raises questions about origin and home, history and the present as densely and inextricably as the paths Lina’s life has taken.' (Laura Storfner)

Project Team

Ottjörg A.C. and Thomas Gaschler became classmates and friends at the Nikolaus-Kistner-Gymnasium in Mosbach in 1969. The art project “Fluchtpunkt Hanoi” is their first collaboration. Also part of the team are Ottjörg’s wife and the project’s initiator, Marina Ludemann, and her daughter Nina. .

Born in 1993 in São Paulo, Brazil. Studied stage design at the Berlin University of the Arts and choreography and performance at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Giessen. In 2024, she graduated from the Art as Social Practice program in Hesse. Through her work, she aims to contribute to intercultural, (auto)colonialism-critical community building. She is active internationally, most recently in Frankfurt, Hanoi, and Porto Alegre.

Born in 1959 in Germany, the „economic wonderland“; childhood and youth spent in catholic Rhineland, moved seven times, studied in Tübingen and Hamburg, master's degree in literary studies. Escaped the confines of a newspaper editorial office by taking a job at the Goethe-Institut, returned to Berlin in 2024 after 35 years of international cultural exchange. Invitation exhibition Berlin.

Born in Heidelberg in 1958. Studied philosophy and journalism at the Free University of Berlin; fine arts at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Repin Institute St. Petersburg, and HdK Berlin. First international exhibition in 1989 in Beijing, China; global projects since 1999. Works in public and private collections. Since 2004, lectures at academies and art colleges.

Following his studies in communication sciences, he worked as a film critic, fanzine editor, festival organiser, non-fiction film author, TV movie producer, screenwriter and marketing specialist. He has created industrial films, commercials, internet content and programme promotions for various TV stations.

Artistic search on various levels

Mosbach. (tkr) An unusual art project entitled ‘Fluchtpunkt Hanoi’ has come to Mosbach; created by a group of four artists, it is on display at the Altes Schlachthaus at the Kunstverein Neckar-Odenwald (as reported by the RNZ). At the opening reception outside the exhibition venue in the Stadtgarten, the chairman of the Kunstverein, Harald Kielmann, and Deputy Mayor Manfred Beuchert welcomed a large number of art enthusiasts.

During an artist talk, the audience learnt more about the background and creation of the large-scale work on display, which an accompanying text describes as having its origins in a German migration story from the 20th century. This story has close family links to three of the artists involved, and traces a journey from Witten an der Ruhr via the Netherlands and France – where one joined the Foreign Legion – on to North Africa and Indochina, and finally to Vietnam. The journey then takes us to Paris and Germany, before coming full circle back to Hanoi. It centres on the ancestors of the two artists, Marina Ludemann and Nina DeLudemann, particularly Lina, whose eventful life evidently inspired a quest in a special way.

Formally, the art project that fills the entire space of the Alte Schlachthaus is a perfect amalgam of video and object installation, presented in an unusually distinctive and idiosyncratic manner. Across three projection screens, film scenes featuring the people and places at the heart of the project are shown simultaneously, accompanied by a single, unified soundtrack—creating a fascinating experience that never becomes overwhelming. The experienced filmmaker Thomas Gaschler played a key role in the cinematic realisation of the project, alongside Ottjörg A. C., known as “Out of Mosbach”. The two have known each other since their school days at the Nicolaus-Kistner-Gymnasium. This exhibition core of moving images is complemented by object installations: a mysterious old suitcase containing documents from the lives of the people reflected in the overall work of art, and—bringing the narrative into the present—artistically designed T-shirts by Nina DeLudemann. The exhibition was previously shown on a smaller scale in Berlin in 2025 and will travel to Vietnam in the autumn. Thanks to its flexible structure, it can be adapted to different exhibition settings. The great interest and response from visitors during the exhibition’s opening quickly made one thing clear: “Fluchtpunkt Hanoi” has become a work that reflects, in a remarkable way, different dimensions of human existence. There is the personal and family dimension, in which people embark on a search for their own roots. Here, it is above all the two women who seek a deeper understanding of their origins by drawing closer to their grandmother and great-grandmother, respectively. There is also a historical dimension: a young man who, more than 100 years ago, sought a path towards making the world a better place, only to become dramatically entangled in unforeseen circumstances. And there is the very contemporary dimension of migration—the interpenetration of cultures, seen by some as enrichment and by others as a threat.

Nina De Ludemann