Libyan Jewish Art of the Holocaust: Collages
By Nava T. Barazani
Statement by the Artist:
My name is Nava T. Barazani, I am doing a doctorate in Cultural Studies program at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. My research is about the childhood of the Jewish community in Libya during the war and Holocaust, based on interviews of people who experienced the period as children.
In addition to academic research, I study the subject as an artist. In my artwork, I strive to intertwine events from the life of my mother Yulia (Yael) Messika at age five, when she was interned in Giado concentration camp in Libya. In 2011 I presented “Jado, Mom’s corner” exhibition. The exhibition was held in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem and Petah-Tikva. Some of these works are presented now at Yad-Vashem Art Museum.
My collages are made from scraps of paper on cardboard, glued with plastic glue. The platform of some of my works consists of pages of an old book about Rommel (1950), the German general who fought in Libya against the British army between the year 1941-1942. Ostensibly, in these works my mother's memory covers the old, crumbling pages of history and unites them.
