JJJJJerome Ellis: An unfinished calendar that commemorates slaves escaping their enslavers, 1673–1886

You walk into the Graphisches Kabinett and the walls move a little. Each sheet hangs from two magnets at its top corners, so the draught you make walking past lifts it. On each one, a charcoal list names enslaved people who escaped between 1673 and 1886, with the date and place of their escape, framed by flowers in oil pastel.

There is one sheet for every day of the run. Ellis began collecting the names in 2020 from "runaway slave" advertisements that enslavers placed in newspapers, searching archives in 13 countries, from Jamaica to Brazil. A recording of Ellis's voice describes the room and reads out each day's names. The Secession cites two models: Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Matisse's chapel in Vence.

It is a single first-floor room. Admission is €13 (students under 26 €7.50, under-12s free) and covers every current show; 4 November is free. On 13 November at 16:30, a lecture performance on stuttering and accents, with live transcription, accompanies the show.