Language:
English
Year of publication:
1998
Titel der Quelle:
Oxford Art Journal
Angaben zur Quelle:
21,2 (1998) 3-20
Keywords:
Boltanski, Christian,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), and art
Abstract:
"The Missing House, " by the French artist Christian Boltanski, produced for and in the city of Berlin in the autumn of 1990, is located in a building in former East Berlin which was damaged in an Allied bombing raid on 3 February 1945. It consists of black and white plaques indicating the family name, profession, and period of residency of each family that lived in the building when it was bombed. Unbeknownst to the artist when he began the project, prior to 1942 many of the building's residents were Jews. By the time of the bombing these tenants had been evicted, displaced, deported, and presumably killed. Though "The Missing House" and other of Boltanski's works referring to death have been interpreted (especially by Jewish viewers) as referring to Jews, in fact they do not. Consequently, they convey a generalized sense of melancholy, but can have no role in mourning the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
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