Ronit Eden. Concept & Spatial Design offers curatorship and exhibition design
© Ronit Eden. concept & spatial design
Design: Cubicle Design
De Getekenden
Museum Sjoel Elburg, The Netherlands, 2018 - 2019
A site specific installation of Amos van Gelder and Amit Gur, curatorship and exhibition design
De Getekenden (The Marked Ones)
Hinted landscapes, portraits, and music embrace visitors as they enter the exhibition space: The Marked Ones is a total experience created especially for Museum Sjoel Elburg.
The paintings on the walls portray empty landscapes; they present fragments from various periods in human history in which culture collapsed into itself, events such as the Crucifixion, the destruction of the Temples, and the Holocaust. Even though these milestones occurred in specific times and places, their implications are present decades later.
Placed between these imaginary landscapes are two family portraits created after photographs from ca. 1939. One painting portrays the Waaker family: Isaäc (Mozes) Waaker, who was the last rabbi in Elburg, his wife Elisabeth Drukker, and their two children. The other painting portrays the Cohens, the artist's family, celebrating the birthday of one of its members, Ru. Rabbi Waaker's family perished in the Holocaust, whereas some members of the Cohen family survived the war. In both paintings, each figure's head is adorned with a halo of words. These words join together to form a text which reconstructs a biography, and conveying a private pain.
‘The Marked Ones’ is a collaboration between artist Amos van Gelder and musician Amit Gur. In their collaborative work, the artist's painting gestures provided inspiration for the musical composition played in the background.
Van Gelder, a second generation of the Cohen family, has investigated the chronicles of his family which is deeply rooted in the history of the Netherlands. His research gave rise to a series of exhibitions held in different cities. This is the third exhibition. In each of these cities, the artist ties his family history with the history of the local Jewish community. Each exhibition is a site-specific installation which captures the history of the place, and offers a link between past and present.
De Getekenden (The Marked Ones) was created after van Gelder learned about the history of the Jewish community in Elburg, and the part it played in the city's history. Stories from the past are transformed into a work of art, which breathes life back into a place where Jews are now only a distant memory.