Für das Kind

The aim of the project was to re-present this little known piece of history to new audiences and directly connect the Kinder contemporaneously to their own history through physical elements of witness and survival embedded within the work. Due to the nature of the Diaspora it was felt that this Memorial Work should have the potential to travel back to the countries of origin of the Kinder, where for many years the Jewish absence had left a cultural void. Each of Potter’s 23 prints that form the exhibition shows an original suitcase containing objects carried by a child over 60 years ago as they travelled into an unknown future. Each child was allowed only one suitcase, the contents severely restricted; in many instances the objects represent the last physical contact that a child had with either of their parents. These personal treasures, assigned to each child at a critical point in their history, are significant in the context of a specific religious culture, and the individual's sense of his/her own particular national heritage, in terms of geography and cultural influence. The prints are wall mounted, set in deep wooden box frames, echoing the traditional museum case. The engraved narrative, on the glass in front of the image, is in the contemporary handwriting of the individual survivor, a fragment taken from personal accounts, letters, telephone conversations and meetings with the artists. This graffiti-like text disturbs the equilibrium of the implied 'museum', conveying the centrality of those still amongst us bearing direct witness to events and history. The exhibition toured to: Ghetto Museum Terezin, Czech Republic; Imperial War Museum North, Salford Quays, UK;; Memorial Site of Mauthausen, Upper Austria; Nestroy–Hof Theatre, Vienna, Austria. Support was received from a range of charitable and public organisations.