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Chai (2017)
Chai (2017)
A signed copy of the Chai Limited Edition book*
In October 2014, Edward Burtynsky embarked on a photographic journey that took him 4,000 kilometres across Eastern Europe to capture current landscapes of “scarred” sites of the Holocaust. This journey resulted in over 250 photographic images. Burtynsky in collaboration with a team assembled by Lord Cultural Resources that includes Gail Lord, architect Daniel Libeskind, Holocaust scholar Doris Bergen, and landscape architect Claude Cormier, selected six photographs to comprise large-scale imagery for the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, Canada.
All the photographs are of the sites as they appear in their 21st-century setting – and this underlines the theme of “legacy”. The legacy of the Holocaust is to understand what happened, and to remember especially when the “markers” have, or are being, eradicated by human and natural processes.
To provide a more complete context for this imagery, and for the selection of the portfolio, this book presents a broader sampling of key images from that expedition.
Forward by Doris Bergen.
Hardcover: 92 pages
Publisher: Burtynsky Studio
Language: English
Colour Plates: 36
Black & White Plates: 18
Product Dimensions: 8.4 X 12 X 0.75 in
If you are interested in more information about the Chai Portfolio, please contact the studio directly.
*Available to North American residents only. If you are outside of North America and are interested in purchasing this item, please contact our studio directly at bookstore@edwardburtynsky.com
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
The CHAI portfolio and accompanying book were produced in 2017 to celebrate the completion and launch of the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa.
The Hebrew word for “life” is Chai, which has an equivalent numerical value of 18. Consequently, the custom has arisen in Jewish circles to give donations and monetary gifts in multiples of 18 as an expression of blessing for long life. Accordingly, there are eighteen black and white prints in the limited-edition portfolio of 18.
I created the portfolio as a donation project to commemorate the countless individuals who suffered and perished under Nazi genocide, and to accompany my photographic involvement in the National Holocaust Monument. The proceeds from the sale of the portfolio will be donated to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Participating in this collaborative project has presented me with an opportunity to contribute something uniquely meaningful to the Canadian cultural landscape and to important pieces of public art in Canada. It has also inspired me to rekindle my own personal associations with Eastern European culture.
It was not until I visited the actual sites: the camps, monuments, and killing fields – in order to generate imagery for the architecture of the Monument – that the full impact of what those places must have been like and what they still represent, hit me. The sheer scale, and detail of those systems employed by supremely misguided political ideals to implement the execution of mass homicide is mind-boggling.
The relevance of these places and the thoughts they trigger must not be overlooked or undervalued as we continue to shape our global political agendas. For the sake of future generations, we must continue to acknowledge those critical moments in history that stand as examples of turbulent, questionable political affairs and their devastating effect on human lives.
These landscapes and what remain of the structures upon them serve to mark and memorialize one of the darkest periods in human civilization. Although over seventy years have passed, the remnants of this chapter in history speak with potent relevancy for all time.
Edward Burtynsky