Untitled (After Auschwitz) 

MARIA MARKIEWICZ

Single-channel video, colour, sound, 2 min 42 sec, 2021

‘Untitled (After Auschwitz)’ is a two-minute video made up of clips collaged from original and found footage. Whilst the original, visual footage was taken at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the soundtrack to the video is a mixture of the testimonies of the Holocaust survivors and the news stories told about the Nazi crimes in mainstream media. Inspired by the revolutionary works of artists such as Arthur Jafa, the work is supposed to ‘bring’ the former campsite to the viewers, forcing them to face and reflect on their tragic past. In other words, it asks us to remember the past in order to change the future, sympathizing with Adorno’s writings on ethics and metaphysics “after Auschwitz” and the crucial need for “an education toward critical self-reflection”.

Theodor Adorno, “Education After Auschwitz”, available at: https://josswinn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/AdornoEducation.pdf.