Exhibitions

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rigo_noass_logo_16_bbThere were several exhibitions which were connected with each other at the two floating galleries.

1. Installation and screening of Shoah Film Collection
2. “Peeling” – experimental photography by Eitan Vitkon (Israel)
3. “Mortale” – “the making of” of the animated film by Paolo Bonfiglio (Italy)
4. Special performance for RIGA by Doron Polak (Israel)
5. Interventions by Doron Polak & Eitan Vitkon at the Rumbula Forest
6. “Shoah Film Collection” @ 1st International Conference of Holocaust Museums

The exhibtions were opened during the private view on 1 June 2012 by the Ambassador of the Israel, Her Excellency Ms. Hagit Ben-Yaakov, and were running until 30 June 2012.

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Inauguration - guided tour
Bottom Gallery
AVM Riga Exhibition

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Agricola de Cologne had the honour to guide her Excellency the Israeli Ambassador through the exhibition “How Memories Survive”, consisting of three individual exhibitions located at different levels of the floating art galleries NOASS and BETANOVUSS., noass_gallry2i.e “Mortale”, a selection from 10000 handmade drawings Paolo Bonfiglio (Italy) was creating for his animated film, entitled “Mortale”, which is part of Shoah Film Collection, exhibited at the lower level on NOASS, nioass_gallery_01while the upper level was presenting experimental photographs by Eitan Vitkon, who was visualizing the performance, the invited Israeli artist Doron Polak was preparing for Riga, the city of his ancestors, and the third exhibition, presenting Shoah Film Collection as an installation. The final highlight of this private view was the performance by Doron Polak on BETANOVUSS. The conceptual background was his father’s diary from Riga Ghetto, which he survived. The main goal of the exhibitions is to give the visitors background information about the making of the films of Shoah Film Collection and dealing artistically with the Holocaust, and in this way, a better and deeper understanding about the subject matter, as such.

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Exhibition of Shoah Film Collection
The videos were presented via the screenings in the evening and during the exhibition @ the floating galleies of NOASS, in the context of the photografic works by Eitan Vitkon in the upper gallery, and the lower gallery in the framework of the Paolo Bonfiglio exhibition. The installation of the videos got a particular relevance through the authenticity of the different kind of spaces.

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Peeling – exhibition of experimental photography by Eitan Vitkon. The artitst get involved in the perception processes during the preparations for the performance Doron Polak was preparing gfor Riga, the home-town of his ancestors. Based on the diary of his father, he is re-suffering and re-experienceing the feeling and emotions at the Riga Ghetto. The experimental photographic technic transforms the processes of movement into static images.

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Mortale — a selection of drawings from more than 10 orginal drawing Paolo Bonfiglio created for his animatzed movie for Shoah Film Collection.
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Performance by Doron Polak @ the bottom of BETANOVUSS on 1 June 2012
Doron Polak’s father’s family is originating from Riga, where he survived the Riga Ghetto by writing a diary, which was forming the basis for Doron Polak’s very intimate nad personal performance recalling the memory of Riga Ghetto and its victims.

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Intervention @ Riga’s Rumbula Forest on 2 June 2012
one of the memorial sites of Riga, where during the Holocaust on 30. Nov and 8 Dec. 1941 more than 25 Jews form the Riga Ghetto have been massacred.
Doron Polak, whose father survived Riga Ghetto, made a spacial performing intervention accompanied by some SFC artists participants @ Rubula Forest shot as photo and video by Eitan Vitkon, honoring the memory of his father and the thousand of Jews whose blood was overwhelming the ground of Rumbula Forest.

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06-06

1st International Conference of Holocaust Museums
@ Latvian Academy of Sciences

One of the next highlights was on 4 June 2012, when SFC – Shoah Film Collection was presented as an initiative on 1st International Conference of Holocaust Museums, organised by Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum.
It was the most spectacular of all conference sessions, consisting of the ambassadors of Austria, The Netherlands, Czech Republik, Belarus and Agricola de Cologne, who started the session by introducing SFC – Shoah Film Collection, followed by a discussion with the ambassadors and their blunt confessions, how the respective nations deal nowadays with the memory of Holocaust.

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Academy of Sciences Riga – 1st International Conference of Holocaust Museums –ambassadors’ session – 4 June 2012, (from the left to the right) – ambassador of Belarus, ambassador of Czech Republic, ambassador of the Netherlands, ambassador of Austria, Agricola de Cologne – ambassador of the arts (photo Dzintarz Zilgalvis)