MRAČNO SJEĆANJEPortreti djece i mladih velikog formata Manfreda Bockelmanna

- Crtežom protiv zaborava

DARK REMEMBERANCEManfred Bockelmann’s large format portraits of children and youth

- Drawing Against Oblivion

Dragi posjetitelju,

Počašćen sam tvojim dolaskom na ovu izložbu koja prikazuje portrete nas nesuđenih i tužnih „manekena“ koji gledamo u kameru, pogledom u kojem se u nekoliko slučajeva već tokom fotografiranja predosjećalo ono neizbježno što nam je suđeno.

Da, pravo naslućuješ, i ja sam jedan od onih mališana koji je prilikom dolaska u Auschwitz bio fotografiran i odmah nakon toga sljedeći dobrodošlicu „Arbeit mach frei“ strpan u kamion i poslan na rad u rudnik ugljena Fürstengrube.

Nažalost većina fotografirane djece nije preživjela. Ostala su u obliku pepela u rijekama i šumama razasuta po Poljskoj, ali neki smo ostali i priređujemo ovu izložbu da pokušamo utjecati na tebe da učiniš sve u svojoj moći da se to više nikada ne ponovi.

A-3317 Branko Lustig

Izložbom autora Manfreda Bockelmanna “Crtežom protiv zaborava” postavljenom u Francuskom paviljonu u Zagrebu te njezinim otvorenjem na Međunarodni dan na sjećanje na žrtve Holokausta, 27. siječnja, u gradu Zagrebu i Republici Hrvatskoj dostojanstveno se obilježava dan za koji je generalna skupština Ujedinjenih naroda 2005. godine donijela zvaničnu rezoluciju o obilježavanju tog dana. Rezolucija apelira na sve članice Ujedinjenih naroda da poštuju sjećanje na žrtve Holokausta i ohrabruje razvoj obrazovnih programa o povijesti Holokausta, čime se želi pokazati odlučnost da se pomogne u sprečavanju čina genocida u budućnosti. Iz opusa od stotinjak crteža, zagrebačkoj publici, biti će predstavljeno 60 radova, odabranih prema mjestu podrijetla te autorovoj sugestiji.

Tragedija nastala kao posljedica Holokausta se ne može izbrisati. Mora biti zapamćena sa sramom i strahom dokle god ljudsko sjećanje bude postojalo. Samo ako se sjećamo, onda možemo odati prikladnu počast žrtvama. Milijuni nedužnih Židova i pripadnika drugih manjina ubijani su na nezamislivo barbarske načine. Nikada ne smijemo zaboraviti te muškarce, žene i djecu, niti njihovu agoniju. (Generalni sekretar Ujedinjenih naroda Kofi Annan, 27. siječnja 2006.)

Izložbom Manfeda Bockelmanna započinje obilježavanje desete obljetnice djelovanja Festivala tolerancije – JFF Zagreb, a upravo na tragu rezolucije Ujedinjenih naroda ova izložba zajedno s pratećim pratećim aktivnostima namijenjena je obrazovanju mladih o strahotama Holokausta s posebnim naglaskom na mjesto održavanja s kojeg su odvedeni brojni građani Grada Zagreba u koncentracijske logore, odnosno logore smrti održat će se radionica u suradnji s partnerom “Documenta centar za suočavanje s prošlošću” za učenike iz Gline (područja od posebne državne skrbi). Radionica, usmjerena na razvoj interkulturalnog dijaloga, na temu «Djeca - žrtve Holokausta”, povlačit će paralele s djecom koja su pretrpjela slične strahote u Hrvatskoj tijekom ekstremnog ustaškog režima u 1940-im. U prostoru Francuskog paviljona održat će se i svjedočanstvo preživjelog Holokausta Branka Lustiga za učenike viših razreda osnovnih i srednjih škola.

Potrebno je imati na umu da kada i posljednjeg preživjelog nestane, u naslijeđe će ostati jedino sjećanje da budući naraštaji ne zaborave. Izložba “Crtežom protiv zaborava” kao podsjetnik na strahote Holokausta, istodobno vraća dostojanstvo svima onima koji su ubijeni, ali i postaje baština koje će generacijama svjedočiti istinu o strahotama najsramnijeg poglavlja ljudske povijesti.

Nataša Popović, Direktorica Festivala

With the exhibition by Manfred Bockelmann “Drawing Against Oblivion”, set in the French Pavilion in Zagreb and opening on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on 27 January, the City of Zagreb and Croatia marks with dignity the day on which the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2005 adopted the formal resolution on the commemoration of the day. The Resolution calls on all UN member states to honor the memory of Holocaust victims and encourages the development of educational programmes on the history of the Holocaust, thus aiming to show the determination to help prevent acts of genocide in the future. From the opus of hundreds of drawings, the Zagreb audience will be presented with 60 works, selected by the place of origin and the author’s suggestion.

The tragedy that occurred as a result of the Holocaust cannot be erased. It must be remembered with shame and fear for as long as there is human memory. Only by remembering can we give the proper respect to the victims. Millions of innocent Jews and members of other minorities were murdered in the most barbaric manner imaginable. We must never forget those men, women and children, or their agony.

(UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, 27 January 2006)

The marking of the 10th anniversary of the Festival of Tolerance - JFF Zagreb begins with the exhibition of works by Manfed Bockelmann, and in the wake of United Nations resolutions, this exhibition together with the accompanying supporting activities aims at educating young people about the horrors of the Holocaust, with particular emphasis on the venue from which numerous citizens of Zagreb were taken to concentration camps or death camps. A workshop will be held in partnership with “Documenta Centre for Dealing with the Past” for students from Glina (an Area of Special State Concern). The workshop focused on the development of intercultural dialogue and dedicated to the topic “Children - Victims of the Holocaust” will draw the parallels with children who have suffered similar atrocities in Croatia during the extreme Ustasha regime in the 1940s. Students of higher grades of primary and secondary schools will hear b the testimony of the Holocaust survivor Branko Lustig at the French Pavilion.

We should all bear in mind that when the last survivor is gone the only legacy left would be memories for future generations not to forget. The exhibition Drawing Against Oblivion as a reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust, at the same time restores dignity to all those who were killed and becomes heritage that will witness the truth about the horrors of the most disgraceful chapters of human history for the generations to come.

Nataša Popović, director of the Festival

Dear visitor,

I am honored by your attendance of this exhibition that shows the portraits of us: sorrowful, would-be “models” looking into the camera with a gaze in which, in some cases already during the photographing, there is a premonition of what we were inevitably destined for.

Yes, you guessed it right, I too was one of those little ones that were photographed upon arriving in Auschwitz and, right after the following welcome of “Arbeit Mach Frei”, crammed into a truck and sent to work in the Fürstengrube coal mine.

Unfortunately, most of the photographed children did not survive. They remain as ash scattered in rivers and forests of Poland; however, some of us live on and organize this exhibition in order to try to influence you to do everything in your power so that it never happens again.

A-3317 Branko Lustig

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Mračni portreti djece i mladih Manfreda Bockelmanna duboko će nas dirnuti. Promatraču trgaju srce, prenerazit će ga, rastužiti ili ispuniti bijesom. Upečatljivo svjedoče o tome što ljudi mogu učiniti drugim ljudima kada se, vođeni neobuzdanom rasnom mržnjom, bezobzirnom koristoljubivošću i zaslijepljeni nemilosrdnom ideologijom, odluče za zlo, odnosno ne pruže mu otpor. Lica djevojčica i dječaka u dobi od dvije do šesnaest godina dočarana su gusto raspoređenim horizontalnim linijama nacrtanim komadićem ugljenog štapića na gruboj juti, na upečatljivo velikom formatu od 1,50 m x 1 m. Ni na jednom se od tih lica ne nazire ni tračak osmjeha. Kako bi to i bilo moguće? Kosa im je obrijana, crte lica ozbiljne i ukočene, pogledi nesigurni, a duše pune zlih slutnji. Gornji dio tijela viri iz kažnjeničke odjeće od driliha, s crno-bijelim okomitim prugama. Na nekima se može jasno pročitati kažnjenički broj i vidi se žuta zvijezda. Pored pojedinačnih portreta, ima i grupnih prikaza dolaska u logore ili scena iz života u logoru.

Manfred Bockelmann’s dark portraits of children and the youth are deeply moving. They have the power to rip the viewer’s heart, appall, sadden or fill with anger. They are dreadful witnesses of what humans are able to do to each other when they opt for evil or seize fighting against it because they are led by uncontrolled racial hatred, mean-spirited rapaciousness and ruthless ideology. The faces of girls and boys from two to sixteen years of age are shown as horizontal lines drawn in charcoal and densely distributed across very large jute canvases (1.5 m x 1 m). None of those faces demonstrate even a glimpse of a smile. And how could they? Their heads are shaved, lines of their faces serious and rigid, eyes filled with uncertainty and souls with ominous premonition. The upper parts of their bodies are jutting out of striped prisoner uniforms made of rough cloths. In some cases, the number given to each inmate is legible and appears together with the Star of David. Apart from individual portraits, there are also group depictions of arrivals to the concentration camps or scenes from everyday life inside of them.

I. SLIKE

I. PAINTINGS

Na portretima su prikazana djeca i mladi, žrtve nacionalsocijalista iz logora Auschwitz-Birkenau, iz bečkog logora/bolnice Am Spiegelgrund, iz ustanove za eutanaziju u dvorcu Hartheim, iz Terezína (njem. Theresienstadt) i mnogih drugih stravičnih mjesta. Ubijeni su u razdoblju od 1941. do 1945. godine zato što su bili Židovi, Slaveni ili “Cigani”, jer su patili od neke tjelesne ili duševne bolesti, ili zato što su njihovi roditelji pružali politički otpor. Prema rasnom fanatizmu Trećeg Rajha, bili su “nacionalne štetočine” koje je valjalo istrijebiti radi obrane „čistoće njemačke arijevske krvi”. Kao predlošci za portrete poslužile su tzv. “identifikacijske fotografije” snimljene prilikom dolaska u logore. Osobe na njima takoreći gledaju svojim ubojicama u oči. Logoraši koje bi fotografirali kao da su predosjećali što će se dogoditi. Ostali, uglavnom Romi i Sinti, nisu slutili ništa. Pod izlikom “dokumentiranja života Cigana”, službeno su ih pozvali, dok su još bili na slobodi, da dođu na fotografiranje u određeno vrijeme. A zapravo se radilo o prikupljanju

The portraits show children and young people who were victims of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, children’s clinic Am Spiegelgrund in Vienna, Hartheim Euthanasia Centre, Theresienstadt Ghetto and many other horrific places. There were all killed in the period between 1941 and 1945 only because they were Jewish, Slavic or ‘Gypsies’, because they suffered from some physical or psychological illness, or because their parents were involved in some form of political resistance to the regime. In the eyes of the racial fanaticism of the Third Reich, they were ‘national vermin’ that needed to be eliminated in order to maintain ‘the purity of German Arian blood’. The portraits were modelled after the so-called “photo identification” taken upon the arrival to the concentration camps. Persons on those photographs were actually looking straight into their killers’ eyes. The photographed inmates seem to be aware of that. Others, mainly the Romani and Sinti, were entirely unaware of what was about to happen. Under the excuse of “documenting the Gypsy lives”, prior to the imprisonment, they had been officially summoned for photographing at

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dokaza o njihovoj “rasnoj inferiornosti”. Djeca bi obukla najljepše haljine ili odijela, htjela su ostaviti dobar dojam i smiješila bi se ne sluteći kakvo im se zlo sprema. Nisu znala da je situacija smrtno ozbiljna, da se tu radi o nekoj vrsti “castinga” za logore smrti, u koje će ih ubrzo sve deportirati.

Manfred Bockelmann do sada je naslikao više od stotinu takvih monumentalnih portreta, a bit će ih još. Kaže “nastavit ću raditi ta djela sve dok budem mogao raditi”. Naravno da zna da s obzirom na tisuće i tisuće žrtava može portretirati samo mali broj likvidiranih. Pa ipak, Bockelmann izgara za taj projekt, koji je nazvao Crtežom protiv zaborava. Stalo mu je do toga “da barem nekolicini imena i brojeva da lice, da izdvoji nekoliko ljudi iz anonimnosti statistike”. Umjetničkim sredstvima žrtve iz mraka potiskivanja ponovo izvodi na svjetlo dana, kao što i nama na suptilan način predočava monstruoznost tog legaliziranog zločina.

an appointed time. But in fact, the intention was to collect evidence on their “racial inferiority”. For that reason, children would wear their best dresses or suites to leave a good impression; they were smiling oblivious of the evil ahead. They did not know that the situation was dreadfully serious and that they were taking part in some sort of “casting” for death camps to which they would all soon get deported.

Until now, Manfred Bockelmann painted more than one hundred such monumental portraits and there will be more to come. Bocklemann says: “I shall continue working on those portraits as long as I am capable of working“. Having in mind that there were thousands and thousands of victims, the logical conclusion is that only a smaller number of the exterminated can be portrayed. And yet, Bockelmann is obsessed with the project he himself named Drawing Against Oblivion. His intention is ‘to attribute a human face to the few and single out a small number of people from the statistical anonymity“.

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“Ne prikazujem mučenike, brda leševa, izmučena stvorenja na čija se lica urezala glad, bolest i iscrpljenost, kojima je oduzeta svaka individualnost. Prikazujem pojedince kojima mučeništvo tek predstoji.” Iza takve formalno estetske Bockelmannove odluke stoji didaktička koncepcija. On zna da se “nitko zapravo ne može identificirati s takvim strahotama. Ne podnosimo ono što je previše strašno i stoga odvraćamo pogled”. Portreti prikazuju “lijepe mlade ljude”, a zaprepaštenje se javlja tek uslijed strašnog konteksta. I tu je još aspekt trajnosti: “Slike se ne uništavaju tako lako(misleno) kao fotografije ili knjige,” kaže Bockelmann, “jer čak ni nacisti nisu uništili tzv. izopačenu umjetnost. Kada jednom dođu na svijet, umjetnička djela uglavnom dugo ostaju tu.

By using artistic techniques, he brings the victims from the dark into the daylight at the same time portraying the monstrosity of the legalized crime. «I am not depicting sufferers, piles of corpses, agonized human beings whose faces are deformed due to hunger, exhaustion and deprivation of any individuality. I am portraying individuals before the imminent torture.» There is a didactic concept behind Bockelmann’s formal decision. He is well aware that «no one is able to identifying with such atrocities. We are simply unable to bear things that are overly terrifying and for that reason we look the other way.» Bockelmann’s portraits show «beautiful young people» and stupefaction only comes by virtue of the terrible context. This is paired with the aspect of permanence, «Paintings cannot be as thoughtlessly destroyed as photographs or books», Bockelmann explains, «because, not even the Nazis were able to destroy the so-called degenerate art. Once they come to light, works of art mainly remain for a long period of time».

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Manfred Bockelmann, rođen u ljeto ratne 1943. godine, pravi je umjetnički multitalent. Uspješan je umjetnički fotograf, filmaš, slikar, kipar, radi umjetničke instalacije i dobro svira klavir, premda samo u privatnome krugu. Osim toga je nadaren govornik, čega je postala svjesna i šira publika najkasnije nakon njegovih jasnih riječi o pomanjkanju političke kulture u Koruškoj. Njegov je opus vrlo raznolik: u zemlji je poznat prije svega po svojim kolorističkim ili monokromatskim pejzažnim apstraktnim slikama, kao i apstraktnim prikazima obzora, mahom većeg formata. Bockelmann na umjetničkoj sceni ne slovi kao „revolucionar“, već štoviše kao “slikar tišine”. Pri površnom pogledu njegovi radovi izgledaju nespektakularno, skladno, maštovito, apolitično, u svakom slučaju odišu ljepotom i lakoćom. No, njegov je stil uistinu prepoznatljiv. Bockelmann je obdaren vidom koji prepoznaje lijepo u prividno banalnom. Umjetničkim sredstvima to će učiniti vidljivim i za promatrača. I upravo se taj čovjek odvažio da pred svoj sedamdeseti rođendan, prkoseći svim zakonima tržišta umjetnosti, uroni u dubinu strahota nedavne nacionalne povijesti.

Tko pobliže osmotri njegove slike, shvatit će da Bockelmannova umjetnost i nije baš tako bezazlena i apolitična. Njegove reakcije na raspoloženja, događaje i prilike u svijetu itekako se odražavaju u njegovom radu. Ne radi se o velikim, bučnim gestama, već o tihim preobrazbama koje se očituju u formalnim konzekvencama. Kao odjek katastrofalnih terorističkih napada 11. rujna 2001. u New Yorku i Washingtonu, slikar je izgubio želju za koloritom. Neko je vrijeme radio isključivo crne monokrome. Preslikao bi novine debelim, crnim paralelnim linijama, između kojih gdjegod proviri komadić papira s ponekom informacijom. Otkrivamo djeliće tekstova o burzovnim tečajevima, nacionalnim prevratima, elementarnim nepogodama, kao i reklama za pelene i pseću hranu. Ponekad se te informacije javljaju na istoj strani, čime se ističe da su podjednako važne ili podjednako nevažne. Crne trake pred očima promatrača ujedno su raster koji upućuje na nepreciznost i zaborav. Simboliziraju ograničenost ljudske percepcije.

Manfred Bockelmann, born in the summer of 1943, is a true artistic multi-talent. He is a successful photographer, film-maker and painter with an interest in installation art and piano playing, although only in an intimate circle. Apart from that, he is a talented orator, which is something that the general public has also became aware after his clear words about the lack of political culture in Carinthia. His oeuvre is rather diverse: in Germany he is mostly known for coloristic and monochromatic abstract landscape paintings, for the most part in large formats. In the art circles, Bockelmann does not have a reputation of a «revolutionary» but is rather known as «the painter of silence». A superficial glimpse at his works reveals the unspectacular, harmonic, vivid, and apolitical and in any case they are filled with beauty and lack of constraint. However, he has a truly recognizable style. Bockelmann is gifted with an ability to distinguish the beautiful from the seemingly banal. By the use of artistic techniques, he elucidates that for the observer as well. This artist took his courage in both hands to immerse in the depths of the horrific national history on the eve of his 70th birthday, defying all rules of art market.

Whoever takes a closer look at his paintings will realize that Bockelmann’s art is not that ingenuous and apolitical. His reactions to emotional states, events and world situation are undoubtedly reflected in his works of art. His gestures are not huge or loud; he is more interested in quiet metamorphoses transposed in formal consequences. After the catastrophic terrorist attack that took place on 11 September 2001 in New York City and Washington, the painter has lost his aspiration for colours. For some time, he worked with black monochromes exclusively. He would draw thick black parallel lines across newspapers where only small bits and pieces of paper reveal information here and there. We are to discover parts of texts about stock market, national upheavals, natural disasters together with the adds for diapers or dog food. Sometimes such information appears on the same page to highlight that they are equally relevant or irrelevant. Black stripes before the observer’s eyes simultaneously function as a raster announcing imprecision and oblivion. They symbolize the boundaries of human perception.

II. UMJETNIK

II. THE ARTIST

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Gubitak boje slikara vodi k preciznom istraživanju materijalnosti crnoga. Preko ulja, tinte i tuša, put ga vodi do crteža ugljenom, koji je prema njegovu shvaćanju, “zacijelo najarhaičniji oblik slikarstva”. Tehnika premazivanja crnim, paralelnim linijama – koje podsjećaju na geološke slojeve - obilježava formalni jezik koji možemo smatrati preduvjetom za “mračne portrete.”

U najširem smislu, Manfred Bockelmann je pejzažist, pri čemu taj pojam kod njega obuhvaća i prikaz industrijskih i urbanih krajolika. Formalno neiscrpno bogatstvo svijeta za slikara je inspiracija i tema. Ljudskim likom se gotovo i ne bavi. Početkom šezdesetih godina napravio je veći broj portreta na Umjetničkoj akademiji, no nakon toga ih je prestao slikati. Tek je 2007. godine sasvim slučajno postao portretist. Radi podrške organizatoru na predstavljanju tekstova austrijske pjesnikinje Christine Lavant, preko noći je naslikao njezin portret velikog formata. Zbog vremenske ograničenosti posegnuo je za metodom crnih linija. Pomoću beamera je konture markantne glave Lavantove projicirao na grubu jutu i “fiksirao” ih ugljenim štapićem na tom materijalu.

The loss of colour leads the painter towards a precise exploration of material qualities of the colour black. After using oil, ink and Indian ink, Bockelmann discovers charcoal, which is, in his own words, «probably the most archaic form of painting». The technique he uses while painting layers of black parallel lines that recall geological layers is marked with formal language, which can be understood as the precondition for «dark portraits».

In the broad sense of the word, Manfred Bockelmann is a landscapist and, in his case, this implies depicting industrial and urban landscapes. Bockelmann remains interested in formally inexhaustible abundance found in the world, that is both his inspiration and the main point of interest. He rarely works with human figure. In the early 1960s, he painted a series of portraits at the Arts Academy but after that he abandoned this practice entirely. He became a portraitist by accident only in 2007. In order to support the organizer of the presentation of texts written by the Austrian poet Christine Lavant, Bockelmann painted her large format portrait overnight. Due to the lack of time, he opted for the black line method. He used a beamer to project the contours of Lavant’s head on the jute canvas and used charcoal technique to «fix» them.

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U jesen 2010. godine, Manfreda Bockelmanna jedne je noći mučilo pitanje što se dogodilo s djecom iz vremena kada je i sam došao na svijet? U ljeto 1943., unatoč ratnim pomutnjama, njegova je buržujska obitelj cijelo to vrijeme uglavnom dobro prebrodila. Otac je bio veleposjednik u središnjoj Koruškoj, član NSDAP-a, načelnik općine Ottmanach i poslovno se, ali i privatno, družio s brojnim čelnicima koruškog ogranka Nacionalsocijalističke njemačke radničke stranke (NSDAP). Neki od njih kasnije su raskrinkani kao masovni ubojice. Tek je potkraj rata Rudolf Bockelmann pao u nemilost stranke, Gestapo ga je uhitio kao dezertera, te mu je prijetila smrtna kazna. U to vrijeme ostatak obitelji već se nalazio u navodno sigurnoj regiji Lüneburger Heide, u Donjoj Saskoj, gdje se nalazilo obiteljsko sjedište Bockelmannovih. Manfred je, dakle, kao beba bio na sigurnom i brižno čuvan. Ratne i poratne godine su ga obilježile, ali ne i traumatizirale.

Katastrofe i strašni događaji koji su se odigrali u pozadini za vrijeme Drugog svjetskog rata već su desetljećima jedna od središnjih tema europske umjetničke produkcije. Razumljivo je samo po sebi da je to posebice izraženo u njemačkom govornom području. “Kao umjetnik sam se želio očitovati o tome”, kaže Bockelmann, „ali smatrao sam da nisam dorastao temi holokausta”.

I odjednom, nakon gotovo cijelog životnog vijeka, ponovo su se pojavila pitanja: “Kako je bilo drugoj djeci u Koruškoj, onoj koja su se takoreći rodila u krivoj kolijevci? Tko su oni koji su prošli puno lošije od mene? I zašto?” I stoga što su ga ta pitanja počela proganjati, počeo je postavljati pitanja.

Godine 1943. nacistička istrebljivačka mašinerija radi punom parom. To je slikarovo polazište. Manfred Bockelmann želi saznati što više o mladim žrtvama iz svog zavičaja, želi čuti njihove priče i približiti im se crtežima. Odlučio je slikati portrete. Velike formate. Crne linije. Ugljen. S temom se upoznaje najprije čitajući knjige. Knjige Imrea Kertésza, Ruth Klüger, Carla Zuckmayera i mnogih drugih. Kako bi došao do predložaka, uspostavlja kontakte sa znanstvenicima i institucijama u zemlji i inozemstvu. Obilazi bivše koncentracijske logore i susreće se s preživjelima. Svi mu pomažu, stavljajući mu na raspolaganje ne samo priče već i fotografske materijale.

In the fall of 2010, Manfred Bockelmann had a sleepless night tormented by the question what had happened to the children born at the time of his birth. In that summer of 1943, despite all war troubles, his bourgeois family lived in relative peace. His father was a landowner in the central Carinthia, member of the NSDAP, mayor of the Ottmanach Municipality with business and private connections with numerous officials of the NSDAP branch in Carinthia. Later on, some were disclosed as mass murderers. By the end of WW2, Rudolf Bockelmann fell into the party’s disfavour, got arrested by the Gestapo under accusation of being a deserter and was about to face a death penalty. At the time, the rest of the family already found refuge in supposedly safe region of Lüneburger Heide in Lower Saxony where the Bockelmann family was based. Therefore, as a baby Manfred was safe and well protected. The war and the post-war period left marks on him but he was not traumatized.

The atrocities of WWII and everything that took place behind the scenes have been at the very centre of the European art production for several decades. For understandable reasons, this is especially the case in the German speaking countries. «As an artist, I wanted to say something about that», Bockelmann explains, «but I thought I was not mature enough to speak about the Holocaust.»

And then, suddenly, after almost an entire lifetime, same questions have reappeared: «what was the experience of other children in Carinthia, those who were born in a wrong cradle? Who are those who had it much more difficult than I did? And why?» And, after those questions started constantly obsessing him, Bockelmann started asking.

In 1943, the Nazi extermination machinery worked in full swing. That is the painter’s starting point. Manfred Bockelmann wishes to learn more about young victims from his home country, he wants to hear their stories and come closer to them with his paintings. He has decided to paint portraits. Large formats. Black lines. Charcoal. He learns about the topic primarily through books. The books written by Imre Kertész, Ruth Klüger, Carl Zuckmayer and many others. In order to find motifs, he gets in touch with scientists and institutions in his country and abroad. He visits former concentration camps and meets the survivors. Everyone is helpful and he manages to collect not only stories but photographic material as well.

III. POČETAK

III. BEGINNING

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Manfred Bockelmann te fotografije pretvara u „mračne portrete“ velikog formata. Crta ih ugljenom koji je sličan pepelu, dakle onoj tvari koja je naposljetku jedina preostala od nesretnika. Donosi odluku da te “slike neće predstaviti na umjetničkom tržištu. One ne smiju postati roba koja se može kupiti. Moguće su posudbe, no ne želim novac od tih slika.”

Crtežom protiv zaborava, projekt koji je prvotno potekao iz Bockelmannovog zavičaja u Koruškoj, danas je postao međunarodni projekt. Prikazane mlade žrtve potječu iz mnogih zemalja i njihovi se portreti izlažu u mnogim zemljama. No, možda upravo portret dvoje djece iz Klagenfurta najupečatljivije ilustrira pravu mahnitost onog načina razmišljanja: dvoje malih Židova, brat i sestra Peter i Evi Preis, stoje jedan pored drugoga. Slatka, vedra djeca u dobi od četiri i pet godina, plave kovrčave kose, bucmastih obraščića u

Manfred Bockelmann turns those photographs in large format «dark portraits». He draws them in charcoal that is similar to ashes, or the very substance that remained after those unhappy people. He decides that «those paintings will not be put on the art market. They shall not become commodity that someone can buy. It is possible to borrow them but I will not take any money for those paintings.»

After being initiated in Bockelmann’s region of Carinthia, today the project Drawing Against Oblivion has an international character. The faces of young victims come from many different countries and their portraits are being exhibited in many countries abroad. The portrait of two children from Klagenfurt, i.e. two little Jewish children, brother and sister, Peter and Eva Preis, standing next to each other maybe serves as the best illustration of the real insanity of the Nazi mind-set. They are adorable and smiling children aged four and five with blond, curly hair, chubby cheeks, wearing leather pants and white socks. In that form, this photograph

kožnim hlačama i bijelim dokoljenkama. Slika koja je u tom obliku mogla poslužiti kao reklama za „njemačku mladež“. Bojeći se zle kobi koja se već nazirala, obitelj je odlučila emigrirati, no državne službe su to spriječile i naposljetku su završili u koncentracijskom logoru Auschwitz, gdje su svi ubijeni. Sva njihova imovina je „arijanizirana“.

Crtežom protiv zaborava je ciklus radova koji ne govore o kolektivnoj krivnji, već svojim snažnim učinkom izazivaju neku vrst kolektivnog srama. Srama kasnijih njemačkih i austrijskih pokoljenja, što je većina njihovih tadašnjih zemljaka čvrsto stajala iza politike nacionalsocijalista. Ali i sram potomaka drugih sila, stoga što je posvuda bilo kolaboratora, izdajica i denuncijanata zbog kojih su i Francuzi, Talijani, Grci, Poljaci, Danci, Mađari, Latvijci i pripadnici mnogih drugih nacija postali žrtvama fašizma.

could have been used as an advertisement for the «German youth». Afraid of their impending unlucky fate, the family decided to emigrate but the Nazi state administration stopped the process and they finally ended up in the Auschwitz concentration camp where they were killed. Their entire property was «Aryanised».

As a body of work, Drawing Against Oblivion does not discuss collective guilt but has the power to evoke a kind of collective shame. The shame of the fact that most of their compatriots firmly supported the politics of National Socialism was passed onto the subsequent generations of Germans and Austrians. This shame was shared also by descendants of other nations because collaborators, traitors and informers existed everywhere, which ultimately led to the French, Polish, Danish, Italian, Greek, Hungarian and Latvian people together with members of other nations which became the victims of Fascism.

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Izložba Crtežom protiv zaborava prvi je put predstavljena javnosti u ljeto 2013. godine. Mogla se razgledati od 16. svibnja do 2. rujna u renomiranom bečkom muzeju Leopold, pokrovitelj je bio Europski parlament, a predsjednik Martin Schulz uputio je pozdravne riječi u ime Europskog parlamenta. André Heller je održao sjajan govor na otvorenju izložbe, u kojem je vrlo točno ustanovio sljedeće: “Manfred Bockelmann je prihvatio težak nalog da ne odvrati pogled, te je odlučio da će ga i ubuduće vjerno i nepokolebljivo ispunjavati, spasivši tako više od 100 lica od zaborava. (…) Taj osobni otpor nacionalsocijalizmu, komu je svjedočio još dok je bio dijete, protiv potiskivanja onoga što je nečovjek ili naš bližnji u stanju učiniti, osobito je važan jer je u tom obliku bez prethodnika, te smo mu na tome svi zahvalni.” Posjetitelji izložbe su u ogromnim salama muzeja suočeni sa šezdeset portreta djece i mladih velikog formata te sablasnom audio-vizualnom prezentacijom (Vožnja noću kroz Beč, pri kojoj se neki portreti projiciraju na fasade kuća onih ulica iz kojih su nekoć nesretnici deportirani) kao i velikim brojem preslikanih stranica iz novina (Obzori – Granice percepcije). U prvoj dvorani mogli su se razgledati crteži

ugljenim štapićem velikog formata: divovsko korijenje te prave mlade breze, metar visoke, s vršcima koji su pougljenili, radovi koji se referiraju na koncentracijski logor Birkenau (njem. Birke = breza) i odsijecanje od korijena, što je uvijek popraćeno velikim strahotama. Pored predimenzioniranog portreta jedne žrtve nacrtanog na zidu, ispisan je citat pisca Petera Turrinija: “(…) i sav užas i sva krivnja ovog svijeta sručili su se na tu djecu”. Načinom na koji su radovi prezentirani u drugoj dvorani, Bockelmann je jasno dao do znanja da ne namjerava grupirati žrtve, niti praviti razlike među njima. Portreti židovske djece različite nacionalne pripadnosti u muzeju Leopold su visjeli pored portreta Slavena, Roma, Sinta, pripadnika pokreta otpora i partizana. Između njih, portreti hendikepirane djece, žrtava zločinačkog programa za eutanaziju nacionalsocijalističke bespravne države. Uz izložbu je objavljen opsežan katalog, koji je ubrzo rasprodan i od tada se nažalost više nije mogao nabaviti.

The first exhibition of Drawing Against Oblivion opened in 2013. It remained opened for visitors from 16 May to 2 September at the renowned Leopold Museum in Vienna under the auspices of the European Parliament. President Martin Schulz addressed the audience on the behalf of the European Parliament. At the opening of the exhibition, André Heller had a remarkable speech in which he said the following: «Manfred Bockelmann has taken up a very difficult task not to look away when he decided that he would pursue his mission devotedly and persistently, thus saving more than one hundred faces from oblivion. (…) His personal resistance to National Socialism, to which he bore witness as a child, and suppression of all those things that a non-human or our neighbour is capable of doing, play a very important role because in this form it is the first of its kind, and for that we are all very grateful.» Visitors of the Museum had to confront sixty large format portraits of children and young people and a sinister audio-visual presentation (A Night Ride Through Vienna – where several portraits are projected on the facades in the streets from which those unhappy people were deported) and many copies of newspapers (Horizons – Limits of Perception) exposed in large halls. The

first exhibition hall presents large format works in charcoal: giant roots of a real young birch tree, one meter high with carbonized tips referring to the Birkenau concentration camp (German word ‘Birke’ stands for ‘birch tree’) and the act of cutting the roots off, followed by extreme atrocities. Next to one of the over dimensioned portraits of a victim drawn on the wall there is a quotation by Peter Turrini: «(…) and all the horror and guilt of this world fell upon those children». The manner those works were presented in the second hall indicates that Bockelmann wanted to clearly establish that his intention was not to group the victims nor to make any difference between them. At the Leopold Museum the portraits of Jewish children from different countries hang next to the portraits of the Slavs, Roma and Sinti, as well as members of various resistance movements and partisans. The portraits of handicapped children, victims of the criminal euthanasia programme created by the unlawful Nazi state, were also among them. The exhibition catalogue was quickly sold out and since then, unfortunately, impossible to find.

III. POSTAJE IZLOŽBE

IV. EXHIBITION STOPS

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Nakon uspjeha izložbe u Beču, koju je u muzeju Leopold obišlo oko 100.000 posjetitelja, jedan dio izložbe preseljen je u Klagenfurt, glavni grad Koruške, u kojem je rođen i Bockelmann. Izložba Crtežom protiv zaborava – Risanje proti pozabi, od 26. 11. 2013. do 26. 1. 2014. mogla se razgledati u salonu „Living Studio“ gradske galerije, pri čemu je s 5.000 posjetitelja oboren lokalni rekord. U te dvije prigode, umjetnik je u nekoliko navrata sam posjetitelje proveo izložbom pri čemu se uglavnom usredotočio na mlade ljude. “Vi ste ti kojima se obraćam, radi Vas to radim. Moja je generacija poprilično zakazala, jer je htjela zaštititi svoje roditelje, koji su omogućili Hitlerov uspon. Naši su učitelji u pravilu bili stari, frustrirani nacisti, koji su sve prešućivali. Vi ste budućnost ove zemlje i možete biti bolji od nas.”

Dana 11. siječnja 2014. u prostorijama kazališta u Klagenfurtu (Ensemble Theater) održan je memorijalni skup pod naslovom Crtežom protiv zaborava – Djeca holokausta, na kojem je predstavljeno 20 portreta. Nakon što je prikazan foršpan filma Crtežom protiv zaborava, o kojem će kasnije biti više riječi, preživjela logorašica Helga Pollak-Kinsky publici je ispričala vrlo osobnu priču o svakodnevnim patnjama u logorima Theresienstadt, Auschwitz i Freiberg. Slijedio je dijalog s Bockelmannom, koji je potom moderirao vrlo intenzivnu diskusiju u kojoj je sudjelovala publika. Došlo je toliko posjetitelja da su vrata dvorane ostala otvorena, kako bi i ljudi koji su stajali ispred dvorane mogli pratiti razgovor.

Dana 26. siječnja 2014, grad Klagenfurt je organizirao memorijalni skup povodom Svjetskog dana Holokausta u koruškom muzeju arhitekture „Napoleonstadel“. Manfred Bockelmann bio je zastupljen s 5 portreta. Po jedan njegov portret izložen je na memorijalnim skupovima u lipnju 2013. i 2014, u ispostavi koncentracijskog logora Mauthausen na Ljubeju (Loiblpass).

Njemački predsjednik Joachim Gauck 27. siječnja 2015. godine otvorio je memorijalni skup povodom Međunarodnog dana obilježavanja Holokausta, u zgradi njemačkog parlamenta (Deutscher Bundestag) u Berlinu. Događaj je popraćen izložbom Crtežom protiv zaborava, u novoj zgradi parlamenta (Paul Löbe-Haus), u kojoj su smješteni parlamentarni odbori i klubovi zastupnika (28. 1. do 2. 3. 2015). Činjenica da se 2015. istovremeno obilježavalo i sedamdeset godina od završetka rata tom je događaju još više dala na težini. Tisućama posjetitelja – doduše uz prethodnu najavu zbog sigurnosnih razloga – omogućeno je da u ogromnoj dvorani (dimenzija oko 100 x 6 metara) razgledaju do sada najveću i najopsežniju izložbu “mračnih portreta”.

Osam dana kasnije, austrijski predsjednik Heinz Fischer otvorio je izložbu Crtežom protiv zaborava u gradišćanskom kulturnom centru Offenes Haus Oberwart, koja je prikazana u okviru komemoracije povodom 20. obljetnice od podlog ubojstva četvero Roma u gradišćanskom mjestu Oberwart, 4. travnja 1995. Budući da se radilo o prvom i jedinom višestrukom ubojstvu vlastitih sunarodnjaka koje je u povijesti Druge Republike počinio Austrijanac, mjesto zločina ima simbolički značaj i izvan samih granica Gradišća i Austrije. Tu je činjenicu Bockelmann istaknuo posebnom gestom: napustivši okvir svog projekta posvećenog djeci žrtvama holokausta, nacrtao je portrete Erwina i Karla Horvatha, Petera Sarközija i Josefa Simona, koji su u dobi od 19, 22, 27 i 40 godina postali žrtvama napada rasiste, ksenofoba i ubojice Franza Fuchsa, u kojem je koristio improviziranu eksplozivnu napravu. Umjetnik je četiri portreta donirao kulturnom centru Offenes Haus Oberwart.

Osim toga, već je dogovoreno da će se izložba uskoro, u jesen 2016, moći vidjeti u Americi na čuvenom fakultetu Richard Stockton College u New Jerseyju, gdje se nalazi i jedan od najvećih instituta za istraživanje holokausta u SAD. Za izložbu su zainteresirani i brojni drugi gradovi te institucije koji su već poslali upite.

After the success in Vienna, where nearly 100.000 visitors visited the exhibition at the Leopold Museum, one part of the exhibition travelled to Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia, or Bockelmann’s native region. From 26 November 2013 to 26 January 2014, Drawing Against Oblivion was on display at the Living Studio Salon of the City Gallery, breaking the local record for largest number of visitors with 5.000. On those two occasions, the artist guided visitors through the exhibition several times mainly focusing on young people. «You are the ones to whom I wish to turn and I am doing this for you. My generation pretty much failed in doing so because we wanted to protect our parents who allowed Hitler to rise. As a rule, our teachers were old and frustrated Nazis who kept everything secret. You are the future of this country and you can do better than us.»

A memorial conference named Drawing Against Oblivion – Children of the Holocaust was held on 11 January 2014 at the Ensemble Theater in Klagenfurt showcasing twenty portraits. After the screening of the sneak preview of the homonymous film, to be discussed later, a Holocaust survivor Helga Pollak-Kinsky told her personal story about the everyday suffering at the Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and Freiberg concentration camps. This was followed by a discussion with Bockelmann, who then moderated a very intense discussion with the audience. The event attracted so many visitors that the doors of the conference room remained opened to allow those who were unable to enter to listen to the discussion.

Two weeks later, the City of Klagenfurt organized a memorial gathering on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Corinthian Museum of Architecture - Napoleonstadel. Manfred Bockelmann presented his work showcasing five portraits. One of the portraits was also exhibited at the memorial gatherings in June 2013 and 2014 at the sub-camp of Mauthausen-Gusen in Loibl Pass.

On 27 January 2015, the President of Germany, Joachim Gauck, opened a memorial conference held on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Bundestag in Berlin. This event was accompanied by the Drawing Against Oblivion exhibition set up in the new parliament building (Paul Löbe-Haus) housing parliamentary committees and MP clubs (from 28 January to 2 March 2015). This event gained importance due to the fact that the year 2015 also marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Thousands of visitors, who had to announce their visit due to security reasons, had the opportunity to see the biggest and most comprehensive exhibition of «dark portraits» inside of an enormously large exhibition hall (100 m x 6 m).

Eight days later, the Austrian President Heinz Fischer opened another Drawing Against Oblivion exhibition at the Offenes Haus Oberwart Cultural Centre in the framework of the commemoration on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the killing of four Romani people in Oberwart, Burgenland on 4 April 1995. Having in mind that this was the first and only multiple homicide of their compatriots in the history of the Second Republic that was committed by an Austrian citizen, the crime scene has symbolic meaning across the borders of Burgenland and Austria. Bockelmann underlined that fact with a very specific gesture: he abandoned the basic framework of his project dedicated to the children victims of the Holocaust and drew portraits of Erwin and Karl Horvath, Peter Sarközi and Josef Simon, aged 19, 22, 27 and 40, became victims of the attack organized by the racist, xenophobe and murderer Franz Fuchs who used an improvised explosive mechanism. Bockelmann has donated the four portraits to the Offenes Haus Oberwart Cultural Centre.

The exhibition will travel to the US in the fall of 2016 where it will be showcased at the famous Richard Stockton College in New Jersey, which housed one of the biggest US institutes for Holocaust research. Many other cities and institutions have also expressed interest in the exhibition.

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Povijest recepcije ciklusa radova Crtežom protiv zaborava duga je i slojevita. S jedne strane, ona se tiče samog umjetnika i njegova obiteljskog okruženja, a s druge strane može se pratiti i po odgovarajućim reakcijama brojnih posjetitelja. Bockelmann se vrlo predano posvetio svom radu. Proučio je povijest i nažalost prekratke životopise portretiranih, posjetio koncentracijske logore, razgovarao s preživjelima, te je dao znanstveno istražiti ulogu svog oca kao gradonačelnika koruškog mjesta Ottmanach i člana NSDAP-a u razdoblju od 1938. do 1945. Senzibilitet za povijesni kontekst i njegovu povezanost s pitanjima kao što su pravo i nepravda, potlačivanje, huškanje, progon i ubojstva promijenio je njegov pogled na ljude i svijet. Umjetnik priznaje: “Ne upirem prstom na počinitelje. Pokazujem kakvi smo mi ljudi. Kakva smo to bića kada jedni drugima možemo učiniti takve strahote?” Na kraju filma, na koji ćemo se sada osvrnuti, on nas uvjerava: “Krivnja danas znači poricati zločine. Nisam manje vedar nego što sam nekoć bio. Ja sam po prirodi vedar čovjek. No, čovjek ne postaje sretniji ako tako nešto gura od sebe, već postaje nesretniji ako takve stvari pokušava potisnuti.”

Tijekom tri godine, višestruko nagrađivana filmska ekipa okupljena oko njemačke autorice dokumentarnih filmova Bärbel Jacks pratila je umjetnika i zabilježila bitne trenutke tijekom tog projekta. Taj film nije portret umjetnika, već se radi o Crtežu protiv zaborava, kako se zove i taj jednosatni dokumentarac. Govori o počecima i motivaciji umjetnika, o načinu na koji je svoje ideje pretočio u crteže, o putu u Auschwitz, o otvorenju izložbe u muzeju Leopold, te razgovorima s povjesničarima i onima koji su preživjeli holokaust u Poljskoj, Austriji i Americi. Film je producirala kuća FINAL FRAME iz Münchena, čiji je izvršni direktor i vlasnik David Kunac, duboko dirnut prvim portretima, odlučio, bez prethodnog upita i naloga, da filmski poprati taj projekt i na taj način doprinese njegovom uspjehu. Koproducent je kuća Graf-Filmproduktions G.m.b.H. iz Klagenfurta. Financiranje je osigurano velikodušnim donacijama. Foršpan, koji traje sedam minuta, prikazan je 2014. godine na Međunarodnom festivalu trailera u New Yorku i osvojio je zlatnu medalju.

Reception of the cycle Drawing Against Oblivion has a rather long and complex history. On the one hand, there is the artist and his family environment and on the other, there are reactions of many people who visited the exhibition. Bockelmann was very committed to this project. He studied history and short biographies of the misfortunate persons on the portraits assiduously, visited many concentration camps, spoke with the survivors and requested a scientific research of his father’s role as the mayor of Ottmanach and a member of the NSDAP in the period 1938-1945. His sense of historical context and its relevance in relation to some important questions such as justice or injustice, oppression, agitation, prosecution and slaughter has changed Bockelmann’s views on the world and human kind. The artist admits, «I am not pointing the finger at perpetrators. I am simply showing why humans behave the way they do. What kind of creatures are we if we are capable of doing such atrocities one to another?» At the end of the film he argues, «In today’s world guilt implies denying those crimes. I am not less optimistic than I used to be. Optimism is part of my nature. However, a person cannot become happier if such things are ignored; ignorance and attempts to suppress them can only result in unhappiness.»

Over the past three years, the multiple-award-winning film crew working together with the German documentary film-maker Bärbel Jacks has been following the artist and recording all relevant phases of the project. The film attempts to focus on the Drawing Against Oblivion instead of portraying the artist for which reason it has the same title as the exhibition. The film is interested in how the artist found interest in the topic, process of transforming his ideas into drawings, his visit to Auschwitz, opening of the exhibition at the Leopold Museum and interviews with historians and Holocaust survivors from Poland, Austria and the US. The film was produced by the FINAL FRAME from Munich whose executive director and owner David Kunac, deeply moved by the first portraits, decided without any prior notice to make a film about the project and thus contribute to its success. The film was co-produced by Graf-Filmproduktions G.m.b.H. from Klagenfurt. It was financed from many generous donations. A seven-minute trailer was shown in 2014 at the International Trailer Festival in New York City where it was awarded the gold medal.

RECEPCIJA I POSLJEDICE

RECEPTION AND CONSEQUENCES

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Na ovogodišnjem New York Festival Best TV & Film, film Crtežom protiv zaborava bio je iznimno uspješan i osvojio zlatne medalje čak u tri kategorije (najbolji dokumentarni film, najbolji snimatelj, najbolja filmska glazba). Film je premijerno prikazan na 30. Međunarodnom festivalu dokumentarnog filma u Münchenu, 8. svibnja 2015. Nakon te svjetske premijere prikazivan je na raznim međunarodnim filmskim festivalima, a emitirale su ga već i brojne TV postaje.

Napravljen je i internetski portal, koji sadrži iscrpne informacije o projektu. Tu se mogu učitati svjedočanstva preživjelih, a u digitalnog galeriji može se vidjeti velik broj “mračnih portreta”. Portal se u međuvremenu razvio u pravu komunikacijsku platformu.

Crtežom protiv zaborava svojevrsni je “motor” za poticanje empatije, slikovita antiteza nacističkoj praksi zatiranja svakog suosjećanja. Tvrd poput Kruppovog čelika –bila je onovremena krilatica. Tvrd prema sebi, ali prije svega tvrd prema drugima. André Heller opisuje kako su ti portreti djelovali na njega: “Već pri prvom promatranju odmah su mi, bez ikakvog prethodnog upozorenja, suze nahrupile u oči. To je bilo nehotice. (…) Umjetnik je kako za sebe, tako i za nas promatrače bespoštedno ‘odradio’ tugovanje, s takvom ozbiljnošću koja me odmah opčinila kao da sam hipnotiziran.” Nemaju svi ljudi tako istančan senzibilitet kao Heller, koji je držao govor prilikom otvorenja izložbe, ali kod posjetitelja su se često mogle zamijetiti slične reakcije. Može li promatranje umjetničkih djela kod ljudi uopće potaknuti nešto? Ako može, što? To je vječna tema rasprava o umjetnosti i pitanje na koje ne postoji općevažeći odgovor. Da neki reagiraju sasvim spontano, to potvrđuju i nastojanja oko daljnjih gostovanja izložbe, filmski projekt i internetski portal.

Crtežom protiv zaborava Manfred Bockelmann radio je na vlastitom sjećanju, tugovanju i sramu. Kod promatrača će potaknuti suočavanje s užasom i proces čišćenja u smislu klasične katarze. Stoga nam ne preostaje ništa drugo nego poželjeti da što više ljudi bude dirnuto “mračnim portretima.” To bi, naposljetku, mogao biti učinkovit i snažan doprinos mentalnoj higijeni društva, koja je danas očito nužno potrebna u mnogim zemljama svijeta.

Heiner Hammerschlag, ožujak 2015.

At this year’s New York Festival of Best TV & Film, the film Drawing Against Oblivion was received with an exceptional success winning three gold medals in three different categories (the best documentary, the best cameraman, the best film music). The film premiered at the 30th International Documentary Film Festival in Munich on 8 May 2015. After the international premiere, it was screened on various international film festivals and broadcast by many TV stations.

An Internet portal dedicated to the project contains comprehensive information and offers a possibility to download survivors’ testimonies or browse a digital gallery with a host of «dark portraits». Over time, the portal evolved into an authentic communication platform.

Drawing Against Oblivion functions as a kind of «engine» for inducing empathy; it is a picturesque antithesis to the Nazi practice of eliminating any form of compassion. Hard as Krupp steal was a popular saying at the time. To be hard on oneself but most of all to be hard on the others. André Heller described the feeling after seeing the portraits, «The very first time I saw them tears started running without any prior warning. It happened without intention. (…) The artist exerted himself to mourn both for his and our sake with a kind of seriousness that cast a spell on me almost as if I were hypnotized.» Not everyone is as sensible as Heller, who held his speech on the occasion of the exhibition opening, but many visitors had similar reactions. Can observing works of art induce something in people at all? If yes, what? This is an eternal point of discussion and a question that can never be univocally answered. Some people react spontaneously and that is the intention of subsequent guest exhibitions, film project and Internet portal.

Manfred Bockelmann created Drawing Against Oblivion as a result of his own remembrance, mourning and shame. It will inspire the viewers to confront the horror and process of purification in the form of classical catharsis. Therefore, we can only hope that as many people as possible would be touched by the «dark portraits». And last but not least, that could serve as an efficient and powerful contribution to the social mental hygiene, nowadays more than ever necessary in so many countries of the world.

Heiner Hammerschlag,, March 2015.

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Organizatori izložbe / Exhibition organizers:

Uz potporu / With the support of:

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsi ble for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

U sklopu 10. Festivala tolerancije – JFF ZAGREB / As part of the 10th Festival of Tolerance – JFF ZAGREBZagreb, siječanj 2016. / Jan 2016

Direktorica Festivala / Festival Director: Nataša PopovićPredsjednik Festivala / President of the Festival: Branko Lustig

Vlasnik eksponata / Exhibit owner: Manfred BockelmannAutor teksta / The author of the text: Heiner Hammerschlag

Grafičko oblikovanje i vizualni identitet / Graphic design and visual identity: Kristina Slunjski RajakNaklada / Printrun: 1300

Tisak/ Print: Printera Grupa d.o.o