Anton Kusters
The Blue Skies Project (2018)
The Blue Skies Project are two artworks in dialogue:
One Thousand and Seventy-eight Blue Skies (2018)
and
The Tracking of One Thousand and Seventy-eight Blue Skies (2018) by Ruben Samama
The Blue Skies Project became part of the Victoria & Albert Museum permanent collection in 2022, thanks to a generous donation by Anne Carlier and Dirk Spillebeen. The two works are joined by connected works such as There is Nothing Here (2021), Zero (2021) and Two Hundred and Sixty-nine Steps, Looking up (2017), as well as independent platform initiatives in a combined long term effort.
The Blue Skies Project is curated by Monica Allende.
Details
Peel-apart instant film mounted on aluminium sandwich panel, wood. Datasheet
Installation dimensions variable (676 x 253 x 85 cm)
Generative audio piece with visual component, duration 4775 days
Collections
- V&A Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
- ICP International Center for Photography, New York City, US
- FoMu FotoMuseum Antwerp, BE
- Collection Vanmoerkerke, Ostend, BE
Research sources
- Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, published by Indiana University Press & United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – USHMM.org
- Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager, Wolfgang Benz/Barbara Distel, published by C.H.Beck (9 volumes)
- Bundesministerium der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz, Sechste Verordnung zur Durchführung des Bundesentschädigungsgesetzes (6. DV-BEG); Anlage zu § 1 Verzeichnis der Konzentrationslager und ihrer Außenkommandos gemäß § 42 Abs. 2 B
Literature
- Ulrich Baer, Spectral Evidence - the photography of Trauma, The MIT Press (2012)
- Otto Dov Kulka, Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death, Allen Lane (2013)
- Eva Hoffman, After Such Knowledge, Vintage (2005)
- Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others, Penguin (2003)
- Mark Godfrey, Abstraction and the Holocaust, Yale University Press (2007)
- Georges Perec, W or the memory of childhood, Vintage (2011)
- Eyal Weizman, Forensic Architecture, Zone Books (2017)
- W.G. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction, Penguin Books (2003)
- Judith Butler, Frames of War - When is Life Grievable
- Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, Abacus (1986)
- Geoff Dyer, The Missing of the Somme, Canongate Books (1994)
- Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, Penguin Books (1977)
- Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer - Sovereign Power and Bare Life, Stanford University Press (1998)
- Robert Hariman, No Caption Needed, University of Chicago Press (2007)
- Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands - Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, Vintage (2010)
- Judith Butler, Precarious Life, Verso (2006)
- Susie Linfield, The Cruel Radiance, University of Chicago Press (2010)
- Ariella Azoulay, The Civil Contract of Photography, Zone Books (2008)
- Giorgio Agamben, Remnants of Auschwitz, Zone Books (1999)
Essays
Press
- “In Order to Know, We Must Imagine for Ourselves: How Artworks by Penny Siopis and Anton Kusters Re-present Traumatic Histories for Participatory, Open-Ended Re-imaginings”, Dale Washkansky, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- “Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt”, Pauline Vermare in “Vortex” by Kikuji Kawada
- “Op stap met tien Vlaamse kunstenaars”, Danny Ilegems, De Morgen
- “Slow Burning Blue Skies”, Colin Pantall, Blind Magazine
- “Die neuen Relativierer”, Maxim Biller, Die Zeit
- “Avec ‘Blue Skies’, le photographe Anton Kusters documente l'Holocauste et la fragilité du souvenir”, Jean-Sébastien Stehli, Madame Le Figaro
- “Pompidou”, Nicky Aerts, vrt Radio Klara 29-04-2021
- “Inventaire Macabre”, M Le magazine du Monde, nº 514
- “Photographie: les Rencontres d’Arles à la croisée des chemins”, Jean-Marie Wynants, Le Soir
- “Les ciels au-dessus de 1 078 camps de concentration nazis photographiés par Anton Kusters”, Donnia Ghezlane-Lala , Konbini Arts
- “Luchten als getuigen van de Gruwel”, Rik van Puymbroeck, De Tijd
- “Techniek staat voor mij ten dienste van het Narratief”, Rudi Smeets, De Standaard
- “Arles 2021: my week at Arles”, Ghislain Pascal, L’Oeil de la Photographie
- “Expo ‘Blue Skies’ van Anton Kusters richt blik op blauwe hemel boven 1078 voormalige concentratiekampen”, Mathijs Bijnens, VRT NWS
- “Les obsessions d’Anton Kusters”, Baudouin Eschapasse, Le Point
- “Anton Kusters reframes memory in a work that maps the atrocities of the Holocaust”, Cat Lachowskyj, BJP British Journal of Photography
- “Meine Fotos sind Spiegel für Alle”, Carola Padtberg, Der Spiegel
- “Deutsche Börse photography prize review”, Sean O’Hagan, The Guardian
- “Smukke, smukke, blå, blå himmel. Hvad er det for et helvede, du har været loft over?”, Politiken dk
- “Kunst für eine Bessere Welt”, Claudia Bodin, Art Magazin DE
- “Anton Kusters’ The Blue Skies Project”, 1000 Words magazine
- “1.078”, Beeldverhaal De Standaard dS Weekblad
- “Beste Anton Kusters”, Gaea Schoeters, Rekto/Verso magazine
- “Carrying the Weight of Genocide Through Photography”, Rachel Gould, Culturetrip
- “Reimagining History and Trauma”, Vantage
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