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New video-art installation “122,499 Files” opens at Yad Vashem
July 12, 2024 by Simmy Allen
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Yad Vashem has launched a new video art wall titled “122,499 Files” by renowned video artist Ran Slavin.
The 44-minute film is now open to the public in the Wolfson Gallery located at the heart of the Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus.
Over a year ago, Yad Vashem invited Ran Slavin to conceptualize a permanent video installation for the new Shapell Collections Centre. Reflecting on his personal connection to the Holocaust and the enormity of the task, Slavin began an extensive journey through Yad Vashem’s vast archives. Having been granted unprecedented access, he explored numerous artifacts, documents, artworks, and photographs that comprise Yad Vashem’s Collections, immersing himself in a poignant voyage through time.
Monopoly game made in the graphics workshop in the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1943
The immersive video installation, curated by Medy Shvide, Director of Yad Vashem’s Archives and Museums Collections, seamlessly integrates these historical elements into a compelling digital video-art piece. Slavin meticulously intertwined hundreds of thousands of images into an audio-visual tapestry of remembrance that tells the story of both the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. “The abundance and diversity of the artifacts presented an overwhelming yet inspiring challenge. Each item held a profound story, demanding to be told,” Slavin notes. “I aimed to reflect the vastness of the collection and maintain the archival aesthetics, while also weaving a contemporary narrative that resonates with today’s multi-channel media environment.”
Accompanying the video is an evocative soundtrack also composed by Slavin, enhancing the immersive experience. The video-art is displayed on an expansive eight-meter-wide by two-meter-high screen, captivating viewers with its rich visual and emotional content.
“When you juxtapose the numerous moving and haunting items, such as a handmade Monopoly game from Theresienstadt, with mundane items like pots and pans used by Jews imprisoned either in ghettos or concentration camps, you are able to convey a powerful human narrative of the Holocaust,” Slavin explains.
“My family’s history and the family histories of countless Jews from all over the world are intertwined with this narrative. Both sets of my grandparents escaped the horrors of the Holocaust, but many relatives did not,” Slavin shares. “This piece aims to provide a glimpse into the lives that were and the enduring legacy they leave behind.”
The Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus, located on Yad Vashem’s Mount of Remembrance, spans some 6,000 square meters. At the heart of the Campus lies the new David and Fela Shapell Family Collections Centre. It is here that Yad Vashem preserves, restores, and stores these Holocaust-related objects in a state-of-the-art facility. Boasting five of the world’s most advanced laboratories for paper, photographs, artifacts, textiles, and art, the center will preserve Yad Vashem collections, including 227.6 million pages of documentation, nearly 40,000 artifacts, 14,000 works of art, 541,000 archival photographs and films, 2.8 million Pages of Testimony, and tens of thousands of Holocaust survivor testimonies. Each item here tells a unique and poignant story of individuals, families, and communities that endured the Holocaust.
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