De thuiskomst

2019

This installation resulted from an exploration of an old house with two members of a Jewish family who used to live in this house until after World War II. This family had to leave this house during the war, to hide from the razzia’s. They were hiding elsewhere for three years. The house would not stay empty for long: a German officer occupied the house and made his own furniture and decoration inside. After the war, the family returned to their home and found their living room filled with fake-oak wooden furniture made by the German.

While the family members, who were children during the war, shared their war stories with me, they sung songs which they used to sing as children, during their hide. During our walk inside the house, they rediscovered a cabinet that belonged to the furniture of the German officer. The current residents had no idea that they had this evidence of the events in their basement. I moved the cabinet back to its room, covered the new furniture under blankets and, as an embodiment of the German officer, I made the cabinet listen to the stories and songs I recorded during the interview with Ida and Ido Nathans.