Mar
Holocaust Memorial
Posted under Art, |
Babi Yar is the name of a ravine in the northwestern section of Kiev. A. Anatoli described the ravine as "enormous, you might even say majestic: deep and wide, like a mountain gorge. If you stood on one side of it and shouted you would scarcely be heard on the other."
It was here that the Nazis shot the Jews. In small groups of ten, the Jews were taken along the edge of the ravine. One of the very few survivors remembers she "looked down and her head swam, she seemed to be so high up. Beneath her was a sea of bodies covered in blood."
Once the Jews were lined up, the Nazis used a machine-gun to shoot them. When shot, they fell into the ravine. Then the next were brought along the edge and shot.
According to the Einsatzgruppe Operational Situation Report No. 101, 33,771 Jews were killed at Babi Yar on September 29 and 30.
But this was not the end of the killing at Babi Yar. The Nazis next rounded up Gypsies and killed them at Babi Yar. Patients of the Pavlov Psychiatric Hospital were gassed and then dumped into the ravine. Soviet prisoners of war were brought to the ravine and shot. Thousands of other civilians were killed at Babi Yar for trivial reasons, such as a mass shooting in retaliation for just one or two people breaking a Nazi order. The killing continued for months at Babi Yar. It is estimated that 100,000 people were murdered there.
The Babi Yar massacre is considered to be "the largest single massacre in the history of the Holocaust"
The artist Cindy Jackson is asking sculptors to donate Artwork for this Holocaust Memorial. Please go to http://www.babiyarrequiem.com to see the project.
It will be the largest, most passionate monument to ever be made about this genocide. Ms. Jackson is organising an art auction to raise funds to complete the first year of this project, which she has accomplished without any corporate sponsorship.
"I'm asking every artist I can to donate a piece to this cause. As an artist, you know how hard it sometimes to get money for these types of things and I know that you understand the drive to keep moving forward despite the lack of funding. Would any of you be able to contribute a piece of your work to this cause?"
The auction will take place the first week in June. In the meantime, any interested artist should send a jpg, a bio, and your web stie address as well as a starting price to put on an artists page of the auction website. This will allow interested parties to see your work and go to your site.
Artwork donated so far can be viewed at http://babiyarrequiem.com/Babi_pages/art_preview.htm . This site is available in order to showcase the artwork presently available for auction.
A tax receipt will be available to you for your donation.
Thank you
Cindy Jackson
www.cjacksonsculpture.com
818-371-3046
The faces tell everything.
Terror, disbelief, agony, shock, outrage.
They are caught at the moment of losing their dignity, their faith, their trust in mankind, their hope.She could have been our sister, our mother, our lover. He could have been our father. That child could have been our baby. It could just as easily be us.
The only difference is that we are alive.
We are graced with the ability to walk out.
Most memorials are designed for reflection upon a moment in history. They allow us to reflect upon things in a distanced, aesthetic way. We stand apart, saddened by the event but reassured by the fact that it is over. We remember those lost by standing briefly outside their monument and then moving on. It is sad and it is commemorative. But we are allowed to stay outside, allowed to be comfortable, allowed to be safe.
Requiem takes us physically into the pit and encloses us in its reality. We are part of the people who died there. The images surround us, enclosing us. The experience is seared into our visual, aural and spatial memory.
In order for change to happen in the world, we have to be made aware that it could be us. We have to be brought to our knees with that possibility. The point of Requiem is that it is still happening. Babi Yar should not be a single event nicely memorialized and tucked away. It can become a representation of all the horrors we humans have brought - and are still bringing - upon each other. Terrorism and genocide are as real today as they were in 1941.
We cannot afford to be complacent.
A poem engraved in the concrete pathway challenges us with a call to action - to not turn a blind eye on today's injustices, to take responsibility, to speak out against the atrocities being committed today. "Schindler's List" affected millions of people in its dramatic portrayal of real people caught in a scenario of unspeakably brutal dehumanization. With Requiem I will create a setting that is equally and unflinchingly honest, enveloping the viewer in a three dimensional world populated by ghostly figures of those massacred at Babi Yar. My goal is to make a sculptural environment so powerful that no person will leave it without being profoundly changed.
Cindy Jackson
