"Portraits and Conversations with Survivors of the Shoah"
A multi-media art project that delves into the act of bearing witness
5:00p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Weisman Art Museum
Monday, January 26, 2015
Free and open to the public reservations required
Please make your reservations by clicking here or calling the event line at
612-424-3624. Parking available in the Weisman Art Musem garage.
The Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies and its campus and community partners invite you to a special evening of events to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
CHGS will unveil the eight Minnesotan portraits of the forty overall paintings done for the "Portraits & Conversations with Survivors of the Shoah" project we coordinated with artist Felix de la Concha. The evening will also include a reception, remarks from Steve Hunegs, Executive Director, Jewish Community Relations Council, a talk from Auschwitz survivor Dora Zaidenweber, and an interview and Q&A with Felix de la Concha conducted by Professor Leslie Morris, Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch.
"Portraits& Conversations" was conceived by De la Concha, in 2007 when he began to paint portraits of Holocaust survivors from all over the world. While posing, the survivors talked about their lives and shared their testimonies of survival. These intimate sessions were recorded so we can see the transformation from a blank canvas to a finished piece. In February of 2013 eight Holocaust survivors who reside in Minnesota participated in the project. There are now 40 completed portraits available to view in the virtual museum on the CHGS website. In addition to the paintings, CHGS also has the video and audio recordings of the sessions, which are on our YouTube channel.
This project was made possible in part with the support of Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council, an initiative of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation and the Wexler Special Events Fund for Holocaust & Genocide Studies.
University of Minnesota partners: The Institute for Global Studies, the Center for Jewish Studies, the Center for German and European Studies, the Center for Austrian Studies, Department of Art History, the Department of History, the Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch, the Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Department of Sociology, Department of French & Italian, the Human Rights Program, the European Studies Consortium, Minnesota Hillel.
Community: The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), Children of Holocaust Survivors Association in Minnesota (CHAIM), Center for Holocaust & Genocide Education, St. Cloud State University.
CHGS_Poster_1218f.pdf
(Event covered by MPR)
