The exhibition ensemble of works by the world-famous German artist includes not only these mirror paintings but also four reproductions of the original photographs taken by a prisoner in Birkenau.
Some prisoners from the Sonderkommando (special unit) managed to take the photographs secretly and under the threat of death in 1944. The location is close to the gas chamber and crematorium No. 5 in Birkenau extermination camp. The photographs are considered to be the only photographic documents of the Holocaust that actually record the murder and incineration of Jewish people in Auschwitz. They became the source of inspiration for Gerhard Richter’s Birkenau paintings of 2014. Some years earlier the photographs had already made a deep impression on the artist who addressed the theme again. The result was four large-format, abstract paintings that were exhibited for instance in Dresden, Berlin, Moscow and New York.
This edition of these paintings will now be shown together with the Grey Mirror paintings and the reproductions of the four original photographs in a permanent exhibition in Oswiecim. They will be on display in their own memorial room based on a design by Gerhard Richter and built in the grounds of the International Youth Meeting Center of Oswiecim/Auschwitz. The "Gerhard Richter ─ Birkenau" gallery will stand about four kilometres away from Birkenau extermination camp and the place where the photographs were originally taken.
The project evolved during a long dialogue between Gerhard Richter, his wife Sabine Moritz-Richter and Christoph Heubner, the Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee. The project is being accompanied by the architect Edwin Heinz (GMS Architects) who, together with his colleague Helmut Morlok, was already involved in designing the International Youth Meeting Center.
Commenting on the development of the new exhibition building the Mayor of Oswiecim, Janusz Chwierut said: "The dedication of these works of art by Gerhard Richter and the construction of his exhibition space will enormously enrich the city of Oswiecim, and they will permanently shape the cultural life of our city in which Auschwitz is so omnipresent. And this is why I so wholeheartedly welcome the initiative of the International Auschwitz Committee and the International Youth Meeting Center."
In Berlin Christoph Heubner said on behalf of the International Auschwitz Committee: "Gerhard Richter’s Birkenau pictures bear witness to his constantly recurring focus on this deeply disturbing subject. The fact that these pictures are now finding their place close to their historical source, just a few kilometres away from the crematoria and the fields of ashes in Birkenau, is both moving and heartening for the survivors of Auschwitz. To them, Gerhard Richter’s Birkenau paintings are a powerful signal against forgetting, and a symbol of empathy and solidarity expressed by the artist for them and their murdered families. In addition to this, the survivors of Auschwitz regard these works as elemental proof that the artistic and political process of coming to terms with what was done to them, and all of the other victims, is never ending and will remain so throughout time."
Gerhard Richter stressed: "Auschwitz/Oswiecim is the right place for these pictures, for this ensemble, to be shown permanently in their own building. There are many other places that witnessed these terrible atrocities, but the name of Auschwitz has come to symbolize them all and must be a reminder of them all. And to me personally, this is also an honour and a comfort, and it gives me the feeling of a task completed."
