SHIMON ATTIE LECTURE

I really really enjoyed the Shimon Attie lecture on Wednesday. This year's lectures have proven to be the best series of lectures i've seen in the 4 and half years of art lectures i've attended at the school.

Since leaving grad school in 1991 Attie and completed between 20-25 major works in places as disparate as Berlin, New York, Copenhagen and Amber Van. The first images shown to us were of his series of projections in Berlin circa 1991. Just several years after the fall of the Berlin wall Attie plunged into research looking for street maps and archive photos of former Jewish places of residence and businesses pre- holocaust. He went on to project these images on top of the existing structures or approximately in the same locations. The powerful images join the world of the past and disappeared with the often crumbing architecture of the time. THis work takes the images of these locations and places the visual memory of the past in the context of the current landscape.

He went on to show images constructed into light boxes that were then lowered into the Copenhagen canals. these images which show a selection of photos mixing current refugees with images of the rescued Jews of Denmark layered against images of water borne craft uses the juxtaposition of past heroism against current social ills as an active challenge to the social policies in denmark concerning immigration and refugee assistance.
I find Attie's work to be interesting as it often engages with social history and current social issues in the same work joining our memory of the past or lack there of to the current situation in a way often challenging the viewer to consider the links and to become informed about the contrast of ideas.

Attie finished his lecture showing images and video from two projects both involving still subjects on moving platforms giving both motion and stillness to the subject matter. Using a similar process in both works Attie pursues different ends with each project. in one the project exists as a way to help the community of Amber Van to reclaim their identity alongside other Welsh towns and away from being constantly defined by the mining disaster that claimed the lives of some hundred of the town's children. In the other the memory of a racetrack is illustrated through the sites artifacts and persons who were drivers, regulars and technicians associated with the site.