gustav metzger at gwangju art biennale 2010

historic photographs: liquidation of the warsaw ghetto, april 19 – 28 days, 1943
black and white photograph mounted on foamex board and rubble
image © designboom


born into a polish-jewish family in nuremberg, germany, gustav metzger (b.1926) was taken to britain in the late
1930s under the auspices of the refugee children's movement (kindertransport), a rescue effort undertaken by
the british government to extricate thousands of predominantly jewish children from germany and german-
occupied territories on the eve of WWII. both of metzger's parents and a number of his relatives perished
during the war, and since that time metzger has lived in exile in london, where he has worked as both an activist
and a producer of politically incendiary artworks. metzger was also the founder of the loosely organized
auto-destructive art movement, whose first symposium in 1966 counted artists jonathan latham, yoko ono,
and hermann nitsch among its participants.

for his ongoing series 'historic photographs' (1994-), metzger creates enlargements of images related to
various historical traumas, to which he adds sculptural elements that force the viewer to engage physically
with the images.



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exhibition view
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historic photographs: trang bang, children fleeing south vietnam, april 1972, 1998
photographed on aluminum, bamboo screen, lights and timer, dimensions variable
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historic photographs: to walk into. massacre on the mount, jerusalem, 8 october 1990
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exhibited photograph
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exhibition view
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