# 58 [26 January 2010]

Following on from the previous post, the downside of working out in the sticks is that it makes it very difficult to attend openings and screenings - I could spend a lot of time travelling to screenings and shows across the world, but realistically I can't afford the time away from my family, nor away from my studio and it also would cost the earth to visit every show.

Of course I prioritise and attend openings for solo and small group shows, but there are many shows I really wish I could attend. Like the projection in Croydon that started last night for example.

Ottica TV is an online TV channel for video art:

http://www.ottica-tv.com/

Paul Malone, the curator and organisor of the channel, set up Ottica TV in 2008 and he arranges screenings in addition to the online presence. This week's screenings onto a tower-block in the centre of Croydon are going to be photographed and filmed, so even though I won't be able to attend I'll be able to use the images on my website.

I'm disappointed though not to see my video of rapid movement across the sand dunes on the beach at Argeles projected onto Britain's only skyscraper (well. . . that's what it looks like), a surreal transformation from its insignificant origins.

http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547

http://www.jonathan-moss.com

# 56 [12 January 2010]

I frequent a forum for guitarists - I took part in its Christmas quiz. I had a few queries to pose to the quizmaster and following a few private-messages he asked what line of work I'm in:

Just had a look at the website and your CV to get a feel of what you do. I loved some of your stuff particularly your latest project it made me think of the Pastor Martin Niemöller poem

They Came For The Jews

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

My father who is still alive at 90 was in WW2 . . .

My dad was born in 1919 in Liverpool, his father died when he was 7.

The family name was Abrahamson which, like many Jews, my father changed in the 50s to Graham.

He spent his 21st birthday in a trench at Dunkirk being straffed by Stukas; he then had to go on the run for three weeks having not been able to get on a boat, coming back and getting on one then. He ended up fighting at the Battle of el Alemain where he was wounded driving an ammunition truck.

His father's family owned tobacco plantations in the Dutch East Indies in the early 19C, which were annexed by the Germans.

He is real fighter even now . . . He married my mum on 2/1/48, they celebrated their 61st wedding aniversary last week. I put their longevity down to the chicken soup.

My mum was born in Brick Lane and is Jewish. I am Jewish. I grew up in a mainly Jewish enviroment in NW London but I do not practice, although as I get older I am more aware of my Jewish history.

I have heard people who have been to visit concentration camps being moved to tears by their visit. . . I was very moved by your interest in the camp near you. I want to go to the Holocaust museum which is near me, but I have to go when I feel that I can deal with it.

I have the " I Came For The Jews "poem engraved on my heart and on the wall in my house, it has been my compass throughout my life, not really to do with anything Jewish, but because I have always stood up for the underdog, minority and protested and fought for what I believed to be right. I suppose that's why I became a lawyer.

The saddest part of all is that the human race have never learnt from the lessons of the Holocaust they still happen. Look at Africa.

Following an innocent exchange regarding an online quiz (I came 2nd incidently) I stumbled upon something much more rewarding. Paul is now going to advise me on the best way to research my Jewish family, the Moscovitchs and Abrams.

http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547

# 55 [21 December 2009]

Today I visited the camp with my friend Deev, a sculptor. I've been invited to put on an exhibition in our local town on the theme of Rivesaltes. Instead of a solo show, or something purely information-giving, I've decided to show all the collaborations I have made on the theme.

All the work is wall-based, apart from the sound-art - so I thought I'd ask Deev to make a sculpture from found objects at the camp.

It went well and he took away a fallen wall section made from reinforced concrete - in three parts joined with iron bars. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with it.

The light today was extraordinary, brilliant sun and dark sky, the atmosphere was very still. Sitting quietly, reflecting on the heavy weight of the past, I took a few more photos of the huts.

http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547

www.jonathan-moss.com

# 53 [25 November 2009]

I was pleased to hear Matthew Collings' views on video-art earlier this week on 'School of Saatchi': "Video-Art at the moment gets you brownie points if you do it".

Everybody is doing it now. I remember four years ago I applied to be part of a BBC2 production on contemporary art (I saw the advert in a-n). I was accepted and when I asked one of the team why, she responded that they needed a video-artist in the group. I recall saying to my wife that I thought it would be a docu-soap and not my sort of thing, but I was pleased to be accepted and thought that the exposure could only be good. Shortly after that there were huge cuts in programming on the BBC, so the show was postponed.

Whilst we were watching 'School of Saatchi' Helen said to me: "Isn't this the programme you were accepted for?". Well, the format has changed a lot, its more glam and more 'X-Factor'. I saw the advert for 'School of Saatchi' last year and would have applied but only UK residents were eligible. However, the point is, this time round there were 1000s of applicants, including probably 100s of video-artists. When I applied four years ago I got the impression that I was accepted because video-art was a bit different . . . how times have changed in such a short period. I put it down to the ease, accessibility and affordability of new technology amongst other things.

Throughout the programme the panel analysed the videos of some of the candidates. The prevalent debate was: "What makes this video-art and not film?", an issue I've had to deal with a lot. Could my videos be categorised as film? I come from a totally different background to a film-maker. I am a painter and see my videos as an extension of my paintings. In my videos I address the same visual issues: colour, form, composition and texture but with the exciting additions of movement and sound.

Linked to this discussion is some good news. Whilst I was transcribing the interview with Norbert Herz yesterday I received an email from Bangkok confirming that one of my videos will be screened in a festival of abstract video: FRESH ABSTRACTIONS organised by the School of Architecture and Design at the University in Bangkok. Rarely does such an opportunity arise for abstract video-art.

Ten minutes later I received another email, this time from Ottica TV, a video streaming web channel of which I am a part. There is to be a screening in February at Bankside and a possible projection on a building in Croydon. So, back to work preparing disks for presentation . . . strange, as just this week I decided to get back to messing about with paint in my studio.

http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547

http://www.jonathan-moss.com

# 52 [24 November 2009]

Please click on 'Reverse Order' to read all five sections of the interview in order.

Interview with Norbert Herz, Holocaust survivor and Rivesaltes intern.

Section Five

JM – I’m finding the recent interest in the Holocaust fascinating, but in France it is extremely difficult to talk about the Holocaust.

NH – Who are you talking to? French people?

JM – They always say: “Why are you making work about that? That’s in the past?”.

NH – Are they Jewish or non-Jewish?

JM – Non-Jewish

NH – There you are, of course, that figures because it is a nasty past and it is a past they they don’t want to think about. Yes, yes . . . yes.

His experiences have provoked many thoughts and feelings in me:

I have visited the Alexanderplatz in Berlin many times from our house near Rivesaltes - he made the journey from Berlin under traumatic circumstances not knowing what lay ahead. His experiences must have been difficult for a young boy.

I looked up all the places that he lived in during the war, what struck me is that they are in idyllic parts of France. He managed to eek out an almost 'normal' existence in the 'Residence assignée' and foster homes only then to be taken to another internment camp, not far away physically, but far removed from the safety of the homes.

Fortunately the ending is a relatively happy one as he was reunited with his parents and was able to settle in Palestine.

I wonder though, whilst he was a teacher in Manchester, did he ever disclose his story? Did people know the horrors he had experienced?

And finally, visiting the south of France in the late 80s / early 90s must have been difficult for him, the same place but under very different circumstances. When I asked him if he would visit the camp again when the memorial is finished he said that if he is still able to travel he would be interested to come.

http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547

http://www.jonathan-moss.com

# 51 [24 November 2009]

Interview with Norbert herz, Holocaust survivor and Rivesaltes intern.

Section Four

Rivesaltes was a camp that didn’t only have Jews, it had Gypsies, it had all kinds of what they called undesirables, but the Jews were concentrated in Ilot K.

JM – Were you able to mix with the other interns?

NH – No.

What I remember clearly is that we were always waiting for the post, that was the only connection with the outside world – for parcels. We were always very hungry, the conditions were appalling and we always wanted some sign from somewhere.

Rivesaltes where the camp was, is military terrain ... they were trying to eradicate it, they were trying to make out that nothing happened there. I came across an army officer when I visited it in the late 80s or early 90s as a tourist whilst I was in the Pyrenees and we went to Rivesaltes. We walked in the camp in the area that was still ruins of barracks and all kind of things and an army officer came from out of the blue and said: “This is military terrain. What are you doing here?”. I said: “I beg your pardon, I was interned in this camp!” and he tried to make out there was no camp, there was no such thing.

JM – I find that locals don’t want to talk about the camp and the things that went on there during the war.

NH - Nobody talks about it? I’m not surprised.

JM – Tell me a little more about your mother.

NH - My mother was liberated from Gurs. My mother survived because ... in the barrack for sick people, people were dying and they needed women who would sit with the dying. My mother wasn’t qualified for anything, but she sat with the sick and dying. People used to say to her: “You’re a fool. Why are you doing that”. She said: “Well, if I do that I shall survive”. And she was right.

When the deportation took place my mother had already been put on the lorry on the convoy supposed to take them to the station to ship them off. The doctor of the Ilot was there and wanted to check the list of people going, when he saw my mother’s name he said: “I need this woman to work” and she was taken off. So she was, it was a miracle and she was saved. Many other people lost their lives. And fathers? I don’t know where the fathers were, but certainly the mothers.

My mother was liberated and in 1945 I left Switzerland to go to Palestine, she followed in 1946 because I had decided to go to Palestine and obviously she wanted to be with me. That’s where my father was. My father had left us in 1933/34 in Berlin and that’s how we, if you like, were re-united in 1945/46.

http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547

http://www.jonathan-moss.com

# 50 [24 November 2009]

Interview with Norbert Herz, Holocaust survivor and Rivesaltes intern.

Section Three

Then I was taken out again by OSE and returned to the children’s home where I was. In the morning we went to the village school and in the afternoon we had tuition in the home. I was there till 1943. In 1943 there was a decree that all Jewish children, non-French because I was not of French nationality, who were not with their parents and considered abandoned would be deported or whatever, so they made frantic efforts to get as many children out as they could. I was lucky because I had an aunt in Switzerland, a Swiss aunt and she vouched for me, so I was smuggled across the border at Annemasse [next to Geneva on the French / Swiss border] . . . I was in Switzerland at Zurich for 3 months with my aunt and then she put me in a Jewish childrens’ home which was a Zionist home and from there, at the end of the war, May 1945, I emigrated to Palestine. That’s the story in a nutshell.

JM – When you were at Rivesaltes did you attend a school in the camp?

NH - At Rivesaltes there was no school. In Rivesaltes the conditions were very, very harsh. In our Ilot was a barrack that was allocated to the Swiss Red-Cross and the Swiss Red-Cross had sent over two nurses, not Jewish ones. They tried to make the lot of us children a little bit easier, I remember what they did was bright and nice in that place. Outside it was horrible and they even made us a little Christmas party, it brightened a bit of the daily existence.

Rivesaltes was a very harsh camp, it was a notorious one. Interestingly the village of Rivesaltes is just next door to it, the French saw everything that was going on. I never realised the village was just next door, I was too young of course.

JM – Do you remember any of the locals visiting the camp, did the Rabbi from Perpignan visit?

NH – To visit what?

JM – The camp at Rivesaltes.

NH – At the time? No. Why would they? A Jewish person visit? They would be hidden, They wouldn’t be allowed to. It was very, very harsh, I can assure you. Also, initially it was guarded by Vietnamese from the French colonies.

http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=11547

http://www.jonathan-moss.com