“It was then and there" is the name of the series of works I presented at one of the exhibitions in about thirty countries across Europe on the occasion of European Jewish Culture Day events, and it is taken from the book "Thoughts on Photography" by Roland Barthes. 

 

  The exhibition was the opportunity for me to artistically present my family story on German soil, from which they were expelled/ transported to extermination over 80 years ago.

 

  The technical starting point of the paintings, prepared especially for the exhibition, is photography and its temporality psychological and philosophical significance.

 

  Any photograph has something of the loss, of the death, since it actually repeats in a mechanical way what it will never be able to repeat in reality: "The photograph freezes and captures a moment while it happened only once and copies it forever."

 

  In the works, which tell the story of my grandmother and our family, I used a mixed technique of drawing, painting and copying using a single duplicate monotype print, and they express, beyond the personal and emotional interest, also the connection between photography and painting in general. 

 

 The selection of well-known iconic photographs of the twentieth century (from the world and from the Land of Israel) as well as photographs from the family album, is closely related to the theme of the event of ETJK 2020, which is "Jewish Travels".

 

  In the works you can find hints of general and family events which mix with each other and flowed my grandmother and the family during her life. 

 

 All of these are presented in fragments  of memories, photographs protruding from holes in a dark screen that simultaneously covers and reveals something that is between consciousness and dream. The bird motif appears in some of the paintings and is a symbol of flight, migration and freedom and sometimes also a symbol of death and loss.

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