Parliament presents the art installation “Kaddish” on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Vienna (PK) – On January 27, 1945, the survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp were liberated. In 2005, the United Nations declared January 27th International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust. Parliament is marking Remembrance Day this week with several signs of remembrance. For example, from January 24th to 28th, 2024, the facade of Parliament will be illuminated with the words #WeRemember, indicating that the House is taking part in the digital commemoration campaign #WeRemember, which the World Jewish Congress and UNESCO have been calling for since 2017 . Visitors and MPs share photos of themselves with a plaque reading “We Remember” on social media.
The light installation #WeRemember is part of an art concept designed by the artist Victoria Coeln to mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Various subjects relating to human rights issues have been projected on the facade of Parliament on selected days since November 2023.
On Thursday evening, January 25th, the work of art “Kaddish” was presented in Parliament as a further visible sign of remembrance. The artists Oskar Stocker and Luis Rivera have installed a 30-meter-long canvas in the pillared hall of the House of Representatives, which offers an artistic interpretation of the Kaddish, one of the most important prayers in the Jewish liturgy. The version of the prayer for the sanctification of the divine name shown is primarily associated with the memory of the deceased.
Sobotka: Education is an important key to overcoming anti-Semitism
In his welcoming speech, National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka stated that, in addition to the May 5th memorial day, January 27th also has a permanent place in the parliament’s calendar. Right now it is becoming clear that the need to confront anti-Semitism is greater than ever before. Parliament’s studies on anti-Semitism and prejudice, which have been carried out regularly since 2018, show that around 30% of the Austrian population is still susceptible to conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic narratives.
The weeks following Hamas’ horrific terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, 2023 would unfortunately confirm the susceptibility of large population groups to anti-Semitic stereotypes, Sobotka said. When planning its brutal attack, Hamas cynically took Israel’s reaction into account in order to exploit the suffering of its own civilian population for its propaganda purposes. Anti-Israel demonstrations around the world showed that this calculation unfortunately works in many places. It is therefore all the more important that the international community assumes its shared responsibility towards Israel and continues to work for the release of the hostages who are still in the hands of the terrorists. The National Council President said he was very happy that all parliamentary groups unanimously condemned the terror immediately after October 7th and called for the release of the hostages.
One of the keys to overcoming anti-Semitism, this “two-millennium-old scourge of humanity,” is education, Sobotka noted. Parliament is making its contribution to this through a wide range of educational activities, for example as part of the Democracy Workshop events, workshops for apprentices as well as events and exhibitions. He is pleased that it was possible to present the installation by Oskar Stocker and Luis Rivera in the House on the occasion of Remembrance Day. The intervention of the two artists, which changed the usual appearance of the colonnade, is reminiscent of the ongoing after-effects of the Shoah. The work of art also conveys a spiritual message and the warning: “Never again is now!”.
Kaddish – a message of remembrance in the hypostyle hall
After the opening words of the President of the National Council, Oskar Stocker gave an introduction to the work. Oskar Stocker designed the installation “Kaddish” together with Luis Rivera, an artist living in Graz, as an appeal for tolerance and dialogue. The installation was first shown in Salzburg in 2018 and has since been visited in Graz and Innsbruck. Stocker explained that the Kaddish prayer, which has a central place in the Jewish liturgy, is not actually a prayer for the dead, but rather a prayer of sanctification, which in a certain version is also used to commemorate deceased relatives.
The impetus for this installation came from discussions with Marko Feingold, the long-time president of the Salzburg Jewish Community and survivor of five concentration camps. Stocker emphasized that it was particularly touching for him and his colleague Luis Rivera personally to be able to present the installation at the Center of Democracy after several stops. The special spatial conditions of the Parliament made it necessary to find a new form of presentation. The canvas with the Kaddish now floats as a kind of canopy in the portico and creates a special atmosphere there.
To illustrate the special emotional content of the Kaddish prayer, Stocker recited the poem “Kaddish”, which Friedrich Torberg had written in 1943. It is Torberg’s reaction to the news that his next of kin had fallen victim to the Nazi mass murder of millions of Jews in Europe.
Shmuel Barzilai, senior cantor of the Jewish Community of Vienna, recited the Kaddish prayer. The guests then had their first opportunity to view the installation. The art installation can be seen in the Hypostyle Hall of Parliament until February 8th. (final) sox
A NOTICE: Photos from this event as well as one Review of past events you find in Parliament web portal.
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