Anton Kusters
Eucalypt Story (N07a7-01) (2024)
Single/multi channel video
Hiroshima, surviving tree #N07a7-01
Sound by Ruben Samama
Dialogue text from “Tokyo Story” (1953), screenplay by Yasujiro Ozu and Kogo Noda
Duration 136min
Stills
The Classroom Floor (2023)
Performance
Instructions
Duration approx. 3hrs 45 mins
Installation
Wood, terrazzo tiles, build plans
663x718x65cm
Video
Duration 01:08:22
Installation
Video stills
Performance stills
Zero (2021-)
Ongoing series
Pigment ink, paper, blockwood panel, washi
1414x1010mm
There is Nothing Here (2021)
Single channel 4K video loop, no sound
Duration 2:11:41 // 4:12
Dimensions variable
Stills
Gavin (2020)
Pigment ink print on paper, varnish, washi tape, blockwood panel
475x315x10 mm
ARC 531297 / U.S. National Archives and Records Administration / Public Domain
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
Supported by
Seven Stations of F.M.I.R. (B.N.) (2019)
Archival pigment print on photographic paper, marble dust, charcoal, washi, pvc panel, wood.
Dimensions 50,8x76,2cm (20x30”) and 114,3x76,2cm (45x30”)
Seven Stations of F.M.I.R. (B.N.) - I
Seven Stations of F.M.I.R. (B.N.) - II
Seven Stations of F.M.I.R. (B.N.) - III
Seven Stations of F.M.I.R. (B.N.) - IV
Seven Stations of F.M.I.R. (B.N.) - V
Seven Stations of F.M.I.R. (B.N.) - VI
Seven Stations of F.M.I.R. (B.N.) - VII