Finding Treblinka – Artist Respond
- Submitting institution
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Staffordshire University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Lists 24
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
- Museum of Struggle and Martyrdom, Treblinka, Poland; Wiener Holocaust Library, London, UK.
- Brief description of type
- A collection of practice-based artefacts, curated exhibitions, conferences and publications that address different aspects of a single project and are collectively greater than the sum of their parts.
- Open access status
- -
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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A - The C3 Centre: Creative Industries and Creative Communities
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- Finding Treblinka – Artists Respond took place over an extended period (2014-2017) involving significant evaluation of methodology and dissemination at each stage. The initial stage required the testing of new collaborative and interdisciplinary methods in the context of re-evaluating complex narratives in a sensitive site-responsive location. The final exhibition allowed for further investigation into the dissemination of the research in a secondary location, requiring a process of reflection, evaluation and further collaborative working that led to the combined exhibition at the Weiner Library. This led to an extended period of joint reflection in the production of books and articles.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This submission presents practice-based research into the use of mixed-media art installations for disseminating and challenging archaeological finds uncovered at the Treblinka Extermination and Prison Camp in collaboration with the ‘Finding Treblinka’ project carried out within Staffordshire University’s Centre for Archaeology by Principal Investigator Caroline Sturdy Colls. Branthwaite led the commissioning and production of artworks that respond to these findings and collaborated with Sturdy Colls to develop a factual exhibition centred on artifacts discovered at the camp, held at the Museum of Struggle and Martyrdom (Treblinka).
Branthwaite created his own artistic response, ‘a pan’, which displayed a pan found during an archaeological walkover survey at Treblinka in a frosted acrylic display case on a museum-style plinth. Four conflicting interpretations relating to the pan (derived from archaeologists and witnesses) were attached on each face of the plinth, presenting the viewer with the reality that historical narratives are sometimes paradoxical and inconclusive. Branthwaite created individual artist briefs that provided each artist with a personalized methodology that encouraged them to explore the interactions between educational information, new framing concepts, and aesthetic reactions to the Holocaust. He balanced these briefs between engaging visitors and opening new possibilities while interrogating and resisting voyeuristic and trivializing responses to Treblinka. The project sought to denote Treblinka’s present-day existence as a mixture of reality and concept, using arts practice to explore ways that archaeological findings can be affected by wider debates and contextual concerns. The work was subsequently exhibited at the Wiener Library. Branthwaite has disseminated it in the book Treblinka: Archaeological and Artistic Responses (2015), the article ‘This is proof? Forensic evidence and ambiguous material culture at Treblinka Extermination Camp’ (International Journal of Historical Archaeology) (2017), and at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (Holland, 2017). These were all co-authored with Sturdy Colls
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -