In the 21st century, historical buildings, works of art and collections are far from being tiresome remains of the past, like they were in the modernisation boosts of the 19^th century or even still in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, they are meticulously guarded and elaborately upkept treasures: irreplaceable materialisations of collective self-images, national heritage and at the same time, valuable resources of touristic commercialisation. Hence, they have to be preserved at any cost and - when damaged in an accident - have to be restored at all costs.

This notion correlates with the 21^st century's self-description as innovative and future-oriented in a way that needs explanation. Frozen Times explores these paradoxes with a series of on-site visits in institutions that allow us to survey the past, from Vienna to Weimar and Zurich. Historical memorial sites and museums can obviously take many forms, from a temple to a supermarket, from a relic shrine to a bunker. They are shelters, time capsules and sanatoria, clinics for the treatment of phantom pain. What are they promising to protect their visitors from?