Beschreibung
How can art serve collective Jewish memory? This is a major theme in DESSA's work. DESSA's Stolzesteine are small upright stones placed within her pictures. They honour the memory of a person or persons and their lifetime achievements. She dedicates this series of paintings to mark the 200 years since Nathan Israel opened his store on March 10th 1815, and pays tribute to the philanthropy and social engagement of the firm over four generations. The history of Berlins Kaufhaus N. Israel has been part of her artistic research since she discovered their 1912 book "Die Hygiene im Wandel der Zeiten" ("Hygiene Throughout the Ages"). DESSA's first tribute to N. Israel in 2003 was presented at Galerie Bremer in Berlin and the Jewish Museum in Westphalia, and inspired an exhibition on hygiene at Musée de Pully in Switzerland. DESSA feels disturbed and hurt by the Stolpersteine. They lie flat in pavements to be trampled on and dirtied not only by dust, boots and bicycles, but also by birds, dogs, and cigarettes. People "look down" on them, rather than "looking up" as suggested by the "Stolzesteine". Prof. Holt Meyer, inspired by DESSA's Stolzesteine, wrote her an essay in which he says: "The Stolperstein is amongst other things a New Testament's image. [.] This makes it particularly problematical as a method of commemorating murdered Jews."
Autorenportrait
DESSA is the pseudonym for artist and author Deborah Sharon Abeles, now called Deborah Petroz Abeles, who was born in 1948 in Southern Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe). She studied occupational therapy in Israel. Besides her work combining music and visual art; her research concerning artistic expression for collective memory reflects on her interest in Jewish history and her own loss of family in Auschwitz. She produced "A Legacy from Theresienstadt" in 1997 and "A Tribute to Kaufhaus N. Israel 1815-1939" in 2003.She has had international exhibitions in Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Poland, France and Italy. A Swiss citizen as of 1983, she lives in Pully, Switzerland with her husband Hervé Petroz, and in Berlin.
