Through The Eyes Of A Nightbird - Ronit Eden
(The title Is taken from the name of an article by the German writer WG Sebald about Jean Amri - an intellectual and an Austrian journalist of Jewish origin, a Holocaust survivor and author of "Beyond guilt and atonement" (1964), which is a philosophical discussion about Auschwitz)
"In this project I will act as an investigator in a crime scene at the house of Herengracht 401, looking for clues about how the past has infiltrated the present. I will rummage through the past, collecting visual sources to help me make sense of the present."
During a five-week residency at Castrum Peregrini, Porat was confronted with documents and oral testimonies of young people who hid there during WWII and about Gisèle van Waterschoot van der Gracht, who provided the shelter. Most of these documents are shown here for the first time—primarily photographs and evidence of the personal tasks which Wolfgang Frommel and Gisèle gave the youngsters to help them endure the difficult times.
Used as raw material, these documents are intertwined with stories and events from the artist's life. This visual diary combines memories and testimonies from the past and the present, articulating the need to tell and share a story.