A selection of photographs of Holocaust survivors, who escaped before, during or after the end of World War II, is the new photographic exhibition by Samuel Shats.
Individual memories that reflect collective feelings of hope and welcome. This is the universe that the prominent photographer Samuel Shats addresses in his new photographic exhibition “At the Threshold of Oblivion”.
This exhibition presents a selection of 32 portraits of Holocaust survivors, who today are between 80 and 100 years old and who find refuge, dreams, hopes and reconstruction in Chile. Today, 70 years after the end of World War II, Shats invites the country to learn about these stories through photographs of the last living contingent of a difficult and dark period in the history of humanity.
At the same time, the expo pays tribute to Chile as a place that welcomes, integrates and opens its doors to migrants; a call to tolerance, respect and cultural diversity.
Memory, memories, resilience and old age are themes that Samuel Shats reflects on and makes visible in his exhibition with different questions. What happens to the memories of an event when the generation that experienced those experiences disappears? Do successive historical episodes alert new generations about the importance of tolerance and respect for others? After the persecutions, what does it feel like today on the threshold of death?
A reality that makes sense, both to the Jewish community in Chile and to all foreigners who have built their second homeland in Chile and to all groups that have suffered persecution of any kind.
"Underlying this is the theme of tolerance for the other, for the different, for the immigrant. Whether Jewish, Arab, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Bolivian, it doesn't matter. Although we have done well, in Chile we still have a lot to learn," concludes Shats.
"Each portrait is a pause in life, a small stoppage of time on the way to the sunset, the one that fortunately arrives late and can look at us and the photographer piously captures, seeking the trace of hell coexisting with sweetness. The years look at us. The 20th century looks at us. They have survived. And they look at us," describes the psychiatrist and playwright, Marco Antonio de La Parra.
In the context of the exhibition, the photographer will launch a book of photographs that immortalizes the testimonies of those present in the exhibition. There are also photos from the survivors' past, as well as audiovisual material with stories of their protagonists. Finally, there will be a round table with Holocaust survivors born in Germany, Greece and Poland.
The exhibition, financed by the National Fund for Cultural Development and the Arts (FONDART) and supported by the Memoria Viva Foundation, will be open to the public in the Visual Arts Room of the GAM, from November 6 to December 27, 2015.
Round table
This exhibition presents a selection of 32 portraits of Holocaust survivors, who today are between 80 and 100 years old and who find refuge, dreams, hopes and reconstruction in Chile. Today, 70 years after the end of World War II, Shats invites the country to learn about these stories through photographs of the last living contingent of a difficult and dark period in the history of humanity.
At the same time, the expo pays tribute to Chile as a place that welcomes, integrates and opens its doors to migrants; a call to tolerance, respect and cultural diversity.
Memory, memories, resilience and old age are themes that Samuel Shats reflects on and makes visible in his exhibition with different questions. What happens to the memories of an event when the generation that experienced those experiences disappears? Do successive historical episodes alert new generations about the importance of tolerance and respect for others? After the persecutions, what does it feel like today on the threshold of death?
A reality that makes sense, both to the Jewish community in Chile and to all foreigners who have built their second homeland in Chile and to all groups that have suffered persecution of any kind.
"Underlying this is the theme of tolerance for the other, for the different, for the immigrant. Whether Jewish, Arab, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Bolivian, it doesn't matter. Although we have done well, in Chile we still have a lot to learn," concludes Shats.
"Each portrait is a pause in life, a small stoppage of time on the way to the sunset, the one that fortunately arrives late and can look at us and the photographer piously captures, seeking the trace of hell coexisting with sweetness. The years look at us. The 20th century looks at us. They have survived. And they look at us," describes the psychiatrist and playwright, Marco Antonio de La Parra.
In the context of the exhibition, the photographer will launch a book of photographs that immortalizes the testimonies of those present in the exhibition. There are also photos from the survivors' past, as well as audiovisual material with stories of their protagonists. Finally, there will be a round table with Holocaust survivors born in Germany, Greece and Poland.
The exhibition, financed by the National Fund for Cultural Development and the Arts (FONDART) and supported by the Memoria Viva Foundation, will be open to the public in the Visual Arts Room of the GAM, from November 6 to December 27, 2015.
Round table
Along with the exhibition, this round table will be developedTraces of the Holocaust in Chile; Identity dramas in the passage from darkness to hopewith the presence of Holocaust survivors.
They participate
Gonzalo Leiva Quijada, Aesthetics Professor at the Catholic University, moderator.
Panel: Joseph Bandet Rivera, Psychoanalyst
Elie Alevy, Greek-born Holocaust survivor Sylvia (Cristina) Felsenhardt, Polish-born Holocaust survivor
Rodolfo Haymann, German-born Holocaust survivor
Gonzalo Leiva Quijada, Aesthetics Professor at the Catholic University, moderator.
Panel: Joseph Bandet Rivera, Psychoanalyst
Elie Alevy, Greek-born Holocaust survivor Sylvia (Cristina) Felsenhardt, Polish-born Holocaust survivor
Rodolfo Haymann, German-born Holocaust survivor