"During the walk I experienced three
different times, the recorded time of the summer 2012, the present time
of the walk in the autumn 2012 and the autumn of 1942."
(Anita G.)
"It was a very physical experience. I felt this lap of time strongly. Suddenly, 1942 gets very close. I started to wonder - what is time?" (Øystein S.)
Concept & realization:
Veronika S. Boekelmann, Kari Strand.
Funded by: Foundation Fritt Ord & Kunstløftet - The Norwegian Cultural Council
Supported by: Jewish Museum Oslo
Funded by: Foundation Fritt Ord & Kunstløftet - The Norwegian Cultural Council
Supported by: Jewish Museum Oslo
Shown in the frame of Den Kulturelle Skolesekken Oslo 2012/13.
PRESENT PAST WILL BE SHOWN AGAIN IN MARCH 2014
Background.
At 26th of November 1942, 532 Jews were deported from the city of Oslo with the final goal of the concentration camp Auschwitz. As there were not enough police cars available, 100 taxi cabs transported the families to the harbor. On the boat shipping them to Poland, the young Kai Feinberg met the girl he was in love with, hoping “to marry her as soon as possible” upon their arrival “in the ghetto”, still thinking about how to tell his friends back in Norway about the “adventure” of the forced journey. Only five days later, at December 1st 1942, all elderly, children and women of the transport were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz – Birkenau. Soon afterwards a taxi driver involved in the deportation sent a letter to the police claiming one of the hundreds of empty apartments. He moved in there in March 1943, after the apartment had been “cleansed with gas”. In 1945 Kai Feinberg came back from the concentration camp as only survivor of his family. He rang the doorbell to his apartment and said: “Hello, my name is Feinberg. I live here.” When we rang the same doorbell in 2012, the woman residing in his former apartment does not know anything about the yesteryear of the place.
The Project.
Present Past brings the audience member to
buildings where Jews had lived until they got deported or had to flee
under WW II. Each audience member walks
around individually, guided by an ipod with video images
and the voices of the artists. For the filming, Boekelmann and Strand have walked exactly
the same walk in real time. The participant during the walk follows the same motion and tempo, moving the ipod as if filming herself. The images on the screen do not
only guide her gaze but also position her in space, bringing her for
instance close to a window front. The constant interplay between the
focus on the screen and on the physical reality out on the streets
creates a bodily disturbance and sensual confusion: ghost-like a person
may appear on the screen where in the current moment nobody is walking.
Consequently, the audience is confronted with an ongoing questioning
about what is real or virtual, present of past. This alienating effect
is reinforced by the use of binaural microphones recording
three-dimensional sound, for example footsteps that approached the artists while
recording, sound spatially realistic for the audience member,
seemingly getting closer to her ear via head phones. Thus, the past becomes physically experienceable for the spectator,
penetrating her present moment. Through the different forms of
ghost-like merging of temporalities, the audience member of Present Past
walks around in a constant interplay of several time zones: the
historical time of the 1940ies, the recorded time of the video, the
present time of the walk, and the imaginary – what could have been there
if the family had not been deported.
Temporal confusion: on the screen, ghost-like a summer day of Oslo pops up.
Neighbors: In Dunkersgate 4B and 4C lived the Jewish family Laksow and the police
inspector Knut Rød who organized the deportation of the Norwegian
Jews in November 1942.
Dialogue with school classes after the walk.
