On 27 January 2004, the Day of Remembrance for the victims of National Socialism, Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse will open the cycle »The Blocked Gate« of works by the Israeli artist Pinhas Golan. The expressive late works of the artist ? born in Hungary in 1924 ? will be displayed in their entirety for the first time in Germany by way of an initiative undertaken jointly by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the American Jewish Committee. In his cycle, Pinhas Golan uses the symbol of the blocked gate to represent the insurmountable divide between his life before and after the Holocaust. Through his pictures and collages, the artist contributes to commemorating the victims of the Holocaust and inspires thought about universal values and human rights.
Having survived the Holocaust as a prisoner at the forced labour camp at Siegendorf, Pinhas Golan left Hungary for Israel with his father in 1948. There he was a professional soldier in the Israeli army. He later went on to study art and philosophy and began to paint his »recurrent dream« of the blocked gate. He describes »The Blocked Gate« in his own words:
»On the one hand, the blocked gate stands for the personal losses, for the tragedy of concrete events from my past. On the other, the experience of loss ? also in a universal sense ? constitutes a central element of my art. One must keep memories alive. Not just for their own sake but above all as illustrative material to learn from for the present and the future so that it never comes to such crimes against humanity again!« His works have been exhibited in Israel and Hungary since the end of the 1980s.
Exhibition venue: Haus der Commerzbank,
Am Pariser Platz 1, 10117 Berlin.
Opening times: daily from 11 am to 5 pm
From 28 January to 9 February 2004
For further information please contact: Deidre Berger, The American Jewish Committee (030/22 65 94 0) and
Sibylle Quack, Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (030/26 39 43 11)
Pictures and texts by Pinhas Golan can be found on: www.artistsonline.co.il
