During the COVID-19 pandemic, I interviewed women living or working in the artist village “Gängeviertel”, Hamburg. By highlighting their struggles and commitment in this place during the lockdown, I want to trace back the living conditions of women who lived in the same place during the cholera epidemic lockdown in 1892.

I created a fake video game that encourages the audience to participate. The plot of the game video is as follows:

Visitors who follow the path guided by the video participate as alien sociologists sent to this place to conduct surveys and historical research activities on Earthling women living in the Gängeviertel. Game participants can interview female members they find and upload their stories to the internet.

On-site visitors need to follow the route shown in the video. It is recommended to start from the starting point.

In Hamburg, several densely built-up residential areas between old and new towns are known as the Gängeviertel. These quarters were built in the 16th and 17th centuries. The majority of the residents were casual workers of low-income and they had to suffer from poor hygienic conditions and high crime rates. After some smaller Cholera outbreaks, in 1892 a Cholera epidemic broke out in Gängeviertel, which is known as the last major Cholera Epidemic in Germany with devastating effects. During the outbreak, all public and business life was shut down under strict social restrictions. More than 8600 people were dead at the end of the epidemic.

At the end of the 19th century, the Gängeviertel underwent structural redevelopment in order to improve the hygienic and living conditions. But after the Second World War only a few buildings in Gängeviertel have been preserved. Since 2009 a small area on the outskirts of Gängeviertel has been used as an arts center and is self-governed by artists.

During the Covid 19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022, this place and its inhabitants had to face a difficult time once again - after the sufferings in 1892 during the cholera epidemic.