Dana Arieli. The Nazi Phantom

For years, Israeli Dana Arieli has been photographing places where National Socialist ideology is still visible or obscured. Internationally renowned poets, authors, politicians write texts and statements about the photos. Visitors are also invited to write texts about the photographs and to become part of the project themselves with their opinions and thoughts.

For the exhibition at the Center for Persecuted Arts, Dana Arieli “Nazi Phantom” was looking for places in Solingen and North Rhine-Westphalia. Dana Arieli also visited the former NS Ordensburg Vogelsang in the Eifel.

Dana Arieli on the project “The Nazi Phantom”: The still existing NS architecture and the perpetrators are often still neglected in public relations. This reflects the difficult handling of the personification of the Nazi era in the country of perpetrators. German cities have chosen different strategies to address the topic: the first aims to demolish the buildings; the second addresses the history and preservation of architecture; the third redefines the role of buildings and expands their significance through these mechanisms. Transparent reminder is another solution that is discussed here.

Dana Arieli worked as Dean of Design at H.I.T., Institute of Technology in Holon from 2013 to 2018 and as Head of the History and Theory Department at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem from 2004 to 2012. Dana Arieli's grandmother met Else Lasker students in Jerusalem as a child, and so there is a personal connection between Dana Arieli and Else Lasker-Schüler in addition to the topic.

Kianoush R like Resistance

The Iranian artist Kianoush Ramezani opposed the obvious falsification of the Iranian presidential election in the “Green Revolution” in 2009 with public protests and demonstrations. With his cartoons, he doubted the officially announced election result, in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the absolute majority with 62.63%. When, during the riots that lasted until the beginning of September 2009, more and more friends and comrades-in-arms were arrested and there were even executions, he fled to Paris. He lives and works there as a political refugee in exile. His political cartoons appear in “Courrier International,” “Guardian,” “Arte,” “Iran Human Rights,” and other international media.

Kianoush is the founding president of “United Sketches,” an international association for freedom of speech that supports cartoonists in exile. His works are shown worldwide, from the Corbusier Cultural Center in Firminy, France, to the Nova Gallery, Washington, USA, to “The Dove of Peace,” an international group exhibition in Tel Aviv, Israel. He was awarded the “Culottes au cul” (ass in the pants) for artistic courage at the International Comics Festival in Angoulême, France.

Kianoush: “I observe society and the interactions between people — philosophically, politically and instinctively. This is my main source of inspiration. I provoke society, remind them to act and sometimes react. I'm putting activism on every line or pixel. My most important aim is to remind people of the value of freedom of speech as a fundamental human right. My art is my activism and my activism is my life. Freedom of speech is my main motive.”