In 2005, a strange news item was reported on by various esteemed newspapers, from the Spanish Clarin to the German Der Spiegel to the Italian Corriere della Sera. According to this story, first appeared on the German site borghild.de, a team of Nazi scientists, from 1941 onwards, would have created the first sex doll in the history of humanity. This was designed to satisfy the comprehensible sexual urges of German soldiers at war, while avoiding the unpleasant health risks connected to frequenting brothels. It quickly transpired that the story was a hoax, artfully created by a (still anonymous) author. Yet all of this merely shed doubt on the Borghild Project: while there is no proof in its favour, we also lack the proof that it is definitely a hoax.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the Borghild Project is one of history’s black holes. It continues to live on, above all on the net, and while some are hard at work to debunk it, others are working equally hard to enrich it with new details. Artist Janez Janša is one of them. Since 2007, he added details to the Borghild story exploring three parallel strands: “updating” the project using objects found or created as needed; “verifying its authenticity” by means of historic research and documentary proof, and “implementing” it by means of new details. It is significant that all of these approaches have been explored by those – journalists or enthusiasts – who picked up on the story. SS-XXX | Die Frau Helga. The Borghild Project Reconstruction is the result of this effort.

Installation 'SS-XXX - Die Frau Helga' is part of the project RE:akt! which confronts current ideological and intellectual canons, power structures, policies, and distribution channels by re-enacting selected historical events. Through processes of analysis, deconstruction, re-enactment and (re-)reporting, the intermedia research and presentation project RE:akt! examines media’s role(s) in manipulating perceptions and creating (post)modern historical myths and contemporary mythology.

http://www.reakt.org/ssxxx/