ABOUT THIS BOOK

The book explores representations of the Holocaust in contemporary art practices. Through carefully selected art projects, the author illuminates the specific historical, cultural, and political circumstances that influence the way we speak—or do not speak—about the Holocaust. The book's international focus brings into view film projects made by key artists reflecting critically upon forms of Holocaust memory in a variety of geographical contexts. Kékesi connects the ethical implications of the memory of the Holocaust with a critical analysis of contemporary societies, focusing upon artists who are deeply engaged in doing both of the above within three regions: Eastern Europe (especially Poland), Germany, and Israel. The case studies apply current methods of contemporary art theory, unfolding their implications in terms of memory politics and social critique.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Zoltán Kékesi is associate professor at the Department of Art Theory and Curatorial Studies at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest.

REVIEWS

"In this powerful volume, the Hungarian-born scholar and researcher Zoltán Kékesi examines selected artworks produced over the past three decades that transform or reframe social memory of the Shoah. the author contends persuasively that paradigms and concepts of Holocaust memory have in fact shifted significantly from the era in which survivor testimony and trauma were the dominant tropes, beginning in the aftermath of the war, when recordings of survivor accounts were first made. The identity of survivor and witness began to emerge as a result of the Eichmann trial of 1961 and of psychological research into the sequelae of trauma, as practices of remembrance and 'memorial culture' developed in the West in the late 1970s and 1980s and valorized public accounts of personal experience. Persuasively elaborating the concern of contemporary artists and filmmakers to mobilize an interactive approach that engages with the present, Zoltán Kékesi's major study makes a vibrant, provocative and necessary contribution to the literature on Holocaust memory, representation and transmission."
-- Hungarian Cultural Studies

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of FiguresIntroductionPart I: The Politics of TestimonyChapter 1 The Reappropriation of Violence: The Speech of the Resistance FightersClaude Lanzmann: Shoah (1985) and Sobibór, 14 October 1943, 4pm (2001)Chapter 2 The Restoration of Difference: The Speech of the PerpetratorClaude Lanzmann: Shoah (1985)Part II: The Archive, In Spite of AllChapter 3 The Melancholy of the ArchiveChapter 4 The Afterlife of ImagesHarun Farocki: Respite (2007)Chapter 5 Mediating the Perpetrator's SpeechRomuald Karmakar: The Himmler Project (2000)Chapter 6 In the Leading Role: Adolf EichmannEyal Sivan: The Specialist (1999)Part III: Site and SpeechChapter 7 The Erasure of the Trace: The Restoration of MeaningArtur Żmijewski: 80064 (2004)Chapter 8 Trauma and SimulacraOmer Fast: Spielberg’s List (2003)Chapter 9 From the Culture of Grieving to the Politics of ImaginationYael Bartana: Polish Trilogy (2007–2011)Chapter 10 Agents of LiberationClemens von Wedemeyer: Rushes (2012)BibliographyIndex