A ‘fresh’ take on the Holocaust
ARTIST Jane Korman recently returned from an all-singing, all-dancing tour of Europe's death camps with her Holocaust survivor father.
ADAM KAMIEN
CATHARSIS takes many forms. Just ask artist Jane Korman, who recently returned from an all-singing, all-dancing tour of Europe’s death camps with her Holocaust survivor father.
The result is Dancing Auschwitz, three video instillations and a photographic image, which are being shown at the Runt Gallery, at Monash University’s Caulfield campus until December 4.
“I wanted to create an artwork that creates a fresh interpretation of historical memory,” Korman says.
“The images [of the Holocaust] we’re used to seeing, the bodies etc., can become numbing after a while, so I wanted to create a new piece of work that makes people question, especially for the younger generation, so the lessons of Auschwitz and other terrible genocides won’t be forgotten.”
The centrepiece of Korman’s work is a contemporary dance video featuring Korman, her 89-year-old father Adolek Korman -— an Auschwitz survivor — and three of Korman’s four children, dancing to the Gloria Gaynor anthem I Will Survive at concentration camps and Holocaust memorials around Europe. Mr Korman is wearing a
T-shirt with “Survivor” written on the front at many of the sites.
Stops on the Korman European tour included Auschwitz, Dachau, Theresienstadt, and a memorial in Lodz, Poland.
Korman also says that while she was aware the project would be highly offensive to some people, survivors in particular, the fact that her father participated “almost makes it legitimate”.
“It might be disrespectful, but he’s saying ‘we’re dancing, we should be dancing, we’re celebrating our survival and the generations after me,’ -— the generation he’s ¬≠created. We are affirming our existence.”
One of the video instillations features Korman’s father in a cattle train in Lodz, having Holocaust flashbacks.
“He seems to be going into a trance and you can hear our responses in the background, going ‘wow, he’s getting into it; wow deja vu,’ and we’re quite shocked at his response.”
Holocaust survivors have taken Korman to task over the piece, but she insists it wasn’t her intention to be disrespectful, citing the fact that the dance is “awkward” and “not completely confident”, which she endows with solemnity and pathos.
“I have explained to them [Holocaust survivors] that there’s no intention of being disrespectful, it’s about a new response, a fresh interpretation of the history, the memory and the lesson so that these lessons keep on being remembered and not forgotten … not become a numbing memory, but a very powerful memory.”
Dancing Auschwitz is on display at the Runt Gallery, Monash University (Caulfield campus) until Friday, December 4. Enquiries: www.artdes.monash.edu.au.
comments