The Saddest Streets In The World - Berlin.
Shimon Attie uses on-location slide
projection images of Jewish past imagery, on to present-day Berlin in this body
of work. Attie describes this work as 'a kind of peeling back of the wallpaper
of today to reveal the histories buried underneath.' he is trying to to restore
the memory of people and events forgotten by history. Most of the black and
white projection images are of Jewish shops, their shopkeepers and the pedestrians
in an everyday scene. He was able to find these images through archival
research and community members own images they shared. The area Attie chose to
take these images were in an area know as the Scheunenviertel, the residents in
the area were among the first groups to be sent to Nazi concentration camps in
World War Two.
The installation project in Berlin lasted a
year, but Attie was able to make them permanent through a series of photographs. These both
documented the projections and, through the artist’s manipulation of
composition and color, added layers of meaning to them. The work has good
contrast with the use of both black and white, with the old images, and the new
scene in colour. The lighting gives the images an over all dramatic and
emotional feeling. I find these installation images powerful, and show history
in our time. I like how it connects both the past and the present of Berlin
together in one piece.