An Artist Meets Testimony

“...If you want to convey a heavy subject such as the Holocaust, you have to use intimate things. Intimacy is created through personal stories, but greater, more significant intimacy is made possible through art...” (Aaron Appelfeld) “An Artist Meets Testimony” is a unique project initiated by the artists Maya and Gal Rave. The project deals with the memory of the Holocaust by bringing together young Israeli artists from the third generation with the testimony of Holocaust survivors. Maya and Gal collect testimonies from people who survived Ghetto Theresienstadt, edit their testimonies to create a strong and significant honed experience, introduce these testimonies to artists from various fields (painting, sculpture, dance, photography, etc.) and turn the testimonies into works of art. The testimonies are a collection of monologues by people nearing the end of their lives and the intent here is to give continuity and life to their stories, their memories, the soul searching they are doing, all through the power of art. In their own way, the works of art seek to give testimony a presence; a new shape; to enable us to read it again; to charge it with conceptual and physical vitality just before it fades away, and thus allow it to move on. Processing testimony may prevent it from being lost. This, because the “real” memory is fading and becoming hazy. Holocaust survivors are growing older, their memories are declining and their numbers are diminishing. The impact of time is not lost on the people listening to the stories, some of whom are themselves no longer young, and their consciousness, our consciousness, too, is also fading. On January 27, 2022, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, these works and documentations will be on exhibition at the Art & About Gallery. The curator of the exhibition: Yossi Veissid Participating artists: Iddo Markus, Amit Kabessa, Geva Alon, Milli Barzellai, Shachar Sivan, Amir Shefet, Izabella Volovnik, Dina Shenhav, Anat Or Magal, Aya Steigman, Moran Zilberberg, Noa Zamir and Rotem Amizur. Among the survivors who participated in the project: the late Peter Lang, Maxi Livni, Zvi Cohen, Dita Kraus, Hannah Malka, Vera Meisels, Vera Idan, Ruth Meissner, Eva Erben, Talma Segal, Handa Drori and Alissa Tenenbaum. We are looking for partners who are willing to contribute with us to the realization of this important and significant project. Thank you and Shana Tova Ve'Hatima Tova - Beit Theresienstadt team and Gal&Maya Rave