Exhibition
The Blue Skies Project
15 May 2019 – 19 May 2019
Event times
11am to 6pm
Cost of entry
Free
Address
- Fitzroy Place
- 2 Pearson Square
- London
England - W1T3BF
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Tottenham Court Road/New Oxford Street, Goodge Street
- Warren Street, Tottenham Court Road, Goodge Street
One thousand and seventy-eight photographs of the sky above the last known location of every former Nazi Germany concentration camp will go on display at the Fitzrovia Chapel in May.
About
The Blue Skies Project by Belgian artist, Anton Kusters, will be accompanied by an audio work by Ruben Samama, tracking 13-years in real time from the date of the opening of the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany to the closing of the last. This is the first time that this immersive, multi-media installation has gone on display in the capital and will coincide with Photo London.
In 2012, Kusters set out to photograph the sites of the official concentration camps which existed throughout Europe between 1933 and 1945. Over the course of five years he photographed the sky above the co-ordinates of each site, using precisely the same camera settings and often waiting for days for a clear sky. The resulting images of blue skies collectively bear witness to the systematic trauma which happened below.
Each photograph is blind-stamped with an identification number and the GPS co-ordinates of the site, along with the estimated number deaths for each location. This stark data, reducing the sites and victims to numbers, is a chilling reference to the systematic efficiency of the Nazi’s programme of extermination. The simplicity of this project, void of landscapes, streets, objects, interiors, signs, scars or traces of humanity, presented alongside Samama’s installation, creates an immersive experience, encouraging contemplation.
