Tue. 17.09.2024

The Third Generation. The Holocaust in Family Memory

 
More than eighty years after the Shoah, we are now witnessing the death of the last contemporary witnesses. Their story, but also their trauma, was passed down to the generations of children and grandchildren. While the second generation grew up with the psychological and physical injuries of their parents, the third generation looks at the family history from a greater temporal distance. Because of the awareness that their lives are based solely on the survival of others, memory and silence, family myths and secrets, overwhelming or missing family legacies are ubiquitous.

Starting from an approach to what it can mean to belong to the third generation and the dimension of trauma in family memory, the exhibition explores various strategies for coping and dealing with the legacy of the Holocaust. Using artistic works in particular, it tells of archiving and no longer wanting to remain silent, of appropriation and demarcation, of consciously remembering and wanting to forget, of the omnipresence of the Shoah and the large gaps in family histories, and the attempts to fill them. The artistic positions, but also the objects and archives on display, show how trauma is transmitted from generation to generation. At the same time, they convey how the global rise of right-wing radicalism, terror, and war can lead to retraumatization, on the one hand, but also to increased commitment to peace and human rights, on the other.

Curators: Sabine Apostolo, Gabriele Kohlbauer-Fritz
Exhibition graphics: BFBW – Bernhard Faiss & Barbara Wais
Architecture: koerdtutech

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Filmstill from "Back to the Fatherland"
© GreenKat Productions
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© Tobias de St. Julien
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© Amy Kurzweil
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Dvora Morag, Witch, 1995
© Courtesy of the artist, Photo Tobias de St. Julien
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Dan Glaubach, Re – vision, February 1996
© Dan Glaubach
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Street sign Kirjat Mattersdorf
© Tobias de St. Julien
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Jonathan Rotsztain, Patterns
© Jonathan Rotsztain
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Christian Boltanski, Le Lycée Chases en 1931, 1987
© mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien / Bildrecht, Wien 2024
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Esther Safran Foer, Trachimbrod sweatshirt from the film "Everything Is Illuminated", 2004 - 2005
© Esther Safran Foer, Photo Tobias de St.Julien
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Esther Safran Foer, clapperboard from the film "Everything Is Illuminated", 2004 - 2005
© Esther Safran Foer, Photo Tobias de St.Julien
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Bracha L. Ettinger, Eurydice n.65, 2019 – 2022
© Bracha L. Ettinger
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Bracha L. Ettinger, Eurydice and pieta n.8, 2012 - 2019
© Bracha L. Ettinger
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Doorpost from Sokołów Podlaski, found 2014, approx. early 20th century
© Mi Polin
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Exhibition view 1
© Tobias de St. Julien
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Exhibition view 2
© Tobias de St. Julien
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Exhibition view 3
© Tobias de St. Julien
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Exhibition view 4
© Tobias de St. Julien
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Exhibition view 5
© Tobias de St. Julien
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Exhibition view 6
© Tobias de St. Julien
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Exhibition view 7
© Tobias de St. Julien
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