RIHA Journal 0112 | 31 December 2014 | Special Issue "Contemporary art and memory" A Journey, the Pain of Others, and Historical Experience: Susan Silas Roma Sendyka Peer review and editing managed by: !atarzyna Ja#o "i$ska, 'i( "ynaro o)e Centrum !ultury, !ra%*w / International Cultural Centre, !rako) Revie ers: I"abela !o)alc"yk, 'arta ,eśniako)ska Polish version available at / Wersja polska dostępna pod adresem: (RIHA Journal 0111) Abstract The author interprets Susan Silas' Helmbrechts walk (1998-2003), a unique series of forty-five photographs and supplementing visual and textual materials collected during the walk along the route of two hundred and twenty-five miles. The walk repeats the route which in 1945 had to undertake women prisoners from the concentration camp in Helmbrechts near Flossenbürg in their death march to Prachatice in Czech Republic. The pictures Silas takes, the people she meets, and finally the trees, the very materiality of the road become the factors of creating her own, individual memory of the event from the past. Silas selects an object from "the margins of the Holocaust" – a forgotten event that she re-presents by reacting to contemporary objects placed along the route of the event. Silas' work offers an opportunity to critically review the concept of memory landscapes (where is memory located in a landscape?) and the phenomenon of dark tourism (is following in the footsteps of the prisoners a kind of pilgrimage, tourism, or therapy?). Silas problematises the question of memory, as well as examines different kinds of non-memory. Her camera is directed at locations that can be termed "the non-sites of memory." Contents There is nothing here to see Darkness, the everyday Elegy of Helmbrechts Walk from Helmbrechts Heidi's landscapes Self-portrait in a convex mirror and the failure of imagination There is nothing here to see 516 In Everything is Illuminated, a novel *y 8onathan Safran +oer, the protagonists fin a $itness $ho can finally irect the! to a 8e$ish to$n they had *een searching for& The age 9ugustine first refuses to help the!, $hich the narrator notes in peculiar :nglish he uses: 2There is nothing to see& It is only a fiel & I coul e"hi*it you any fiel an it $oul *e the same as e"hi*iting you Trachi!*ro &21 In the place fro! $hich first life $as raine an then !e!ory, all is left is an e!pty fiel , in istinguisha*le fro! others. 2<e have co!e to see Trachi!*ro 3 =ran father sai 3 an you $ill take us to Trachi!*ro 22 3 the protagonists insist& <hen finally they reach the place that had see!e to avoi the! li%e a living creature (that $as i!possi*le to locate on any !ap, an $hen they approache it, it i!!e iately !ove so!e$here else, li%e a !ysterious #entre of a 1 8onathan Safran +oer, Everything is Illuminated, London 2002, 1((& 2 +oer, Everything is Illuminated, 1((& License: The text of this article is provided under the terms o8 the Creative Commons License CC-BY1NC-ND 3.00 RIHA Journal 0112 | 31 December 2014 | Special Issue "Contemporary art and memory" labyrinth), it turns out that $hat they see is 2nothing&2 2<hen 7 utter 'nothing' 7 o not !ean there $as nothing, 3 the narrator of +oer's novel says 3 $hat 7 inten is that there $as not any of these things, or any other things&23 The *lack abyss evouring all colours, $here 2there is nothing to see&2 2'Tell hi! it is *ecause it is so ar%,' =ran father sai to !e, 'an that $e coul see !ore if it $as not ar%'& 'It is so ar%', 7 tol hi!& '?o', she sai , 'this is all that you #oul see& It is al$ays li%e this, al$ays ar%&'2' 526 In Everything is Illuminated +oer constructe the plot aroun the search for the place that e"e!plifies an o*1ect on $hich 7 $oul li%e to put special e!phasis in this te"t&( 9cross the lan scape of :ast-.entral :urope, referre to recently as 2*loo lan s,2@ there are scattere very nu!erous places of potential !e!orialisation; places $hich have $itnesse an i!portant event of !ass violence& Despite this fact these locations are no$ evoi of any !e!orial o*1ects or are !ar%e 2insufficiently2 (in a flawe or !istaken !anner)& They are sites of various acts of genoci e that too% place in the previous #entury (the ti!e scope is set *y *oth the t$entieth century origin of the ter! 2genoci e2, as $ell as *y the scope of 2living !e!ory2 of present $itnesses)& They are sites $here 8e$s an 0o!a-Sinti $ere !ur ere , an $here people ie in ethni# cleansing (Bosnia, Colhynia) or other si!ilar eportations (e&g& the Su eten =er!ans)& ?o$a ays, these places 3 so!eti!es vast, yet usually smaller an !ore li%e points on the !ap 3 are covere $ith natural regro$th of nature, so!eti!es $ith neglecte ruins, so!eti!es $ith a ne$ly constructe par%ing lot; they are rifts, o!issions in the te"ture of the lan scape& They are surroun e $ith a negative, perfor!atively e"presse !e!ory; they are sites 2$here one oesn't go,2 about $hich one shoul 2*etter not to tal%,2 2places that haunt&2 The act of !aking these sites o*1ects of taboo ste!s !ost #ertainly fro! their origin *eing lin%e $ith a su en, unavange , unaccounte eath (an fro! the presence of *adly- or non-*urie corpses)&D 7 consi er these sites sy!pto!ati# for the territory of our region an perhaps crucial for the un erstan ing of the local for!s of !e!ory an alternative (for e"ample to the ones that are $ell researche , positive, an escri*able $ith -ierre ?ora's theory8) relations of place an 3 +oer, Everything is Illuminated, 18D& ' +oer, Everything is Illuminated, 18'& ( .f& 0o!a Sendy%a, 2-ry/!a. Ero/umieF nie-!iejs#e pa!iG#i2, in: Teksty Drugie 1-2 (2013)H 20o*inson $ nie-!iejs#ach pamiG#i2, in: Konteksty 2 (2013)H 2.o $i ać / gIry& 7nne !iasto i jego trudne /ie /i#t$o2, in: Widok ' (201')& @ Ti!othy Sny er, Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and talin, ?e$ Jor% 2010& D .f& 0o!a Sendy%a, !iejsca, kt$re stras%& 'afekty i nie)miejsca pami*ci+, Te%sty Arugie 1-2 (201')& 8 7 $rote #riti#ally on ?ora's theory in 2Kiejs#a pamiG#i 3 le%tury %ryty#/ne2, in: Teresa S/oste%, 0o!a Sendy%a and 0ys/ar ?y#/, e s&, ,d pami*ci biod%ied%ic%nej do postpami*ci, <ars/awa 2013, 20@-222& 7n the sa!e volume, Karia Lo*iels%a su!!arise the !ain points of the proje#t of lieux de memoire (Karia Lo*iels%a, .%ytanie /ory0 1ppendi-)& The +rench theorist's proposition !ay *e ac#use of e&g& nostalgi# approach, e"#essive politi#is!, nation-#entris! (sites of !e!ory serve the nation rather than, for e"ample, i!!igrants), singularity of perspe#tive (#riti#al vie$s on the history of +rance o not include 2sites of !e!ory2), and lac% of neutrality (the point is to License: The text of this article is provided under the terms o8 the Creative Commons License CC-BY1NC-ND 3.00 RIHA Journal 0112 | 31 December 2014 | Special Issue "Contemporary art and memory" !e!ory& The research on their characteristics, an the search for e"amples of such o*1ects, co!e together $ith a ne$, increasingly stronger tren in the stu ies on the )olocaust; namely, after !any years of the focus on the figure of the 2camp,2 $or%ing in the *roader fiel as a concept that organises a co!ple" set of iscursive an non- iscursive ele!ents e!erging aroun the issue of the t$entieth-century genoci e, there has evelope an interest in the )olocaust as a 2 ecentralise set of events" (7 !ean here the research of .hristopher Bro$ning on S%arMysko-La!ienna,9 N!er Bartov's on Bu#/acz,10 Jehu a Bauer's on ?o$ogro e%11 an , of #ourse, 8an To!asz =ross's on 8e $a*ne)&12 <hen the 2other )olocaust2 is iscusse , or the 2)olocaust *y *ullets,213 researchers *eco!e intereste in places previously o!itte 1' 3 for they $ere too small or too in eter!inate to co!pete $ith 2the camp2 or 2the ghetto&2 The pro1ect of Susan Silas 3 an 9!erican artist of )ungarian *ackgroun , is an e"ample of a si!ilar shift of attention, this ti!e in the fiel of visual arts.1( ?top@ )arkness, the everyday This is all that you could see0 It is always like this, always dark0 8onathan Safran +oer 536 The !o!ent of the encounter $ith the site of the past suffering, an entrance into its area, is constructe in +oer's novel aroun the !etaphor of nothingness& There is nothing to see, the protagonists face an i!penetra*le ensity, an all- evouring *lack abyss of provi e a ground for 2+renchness2)& ?ora's theory #an *e seen as an unfalsifie pri!ary notion (algory, !yth), $hi#h leaves no space for is#ussion.