Mirta Kupferminc - Artist Talk 2

The Skin of Memory: Space of Repression and Expression

Mirta Kupferminc’s presention was of her artworks that are a combination of video installations, photography, and embroidery. In her works, she tends to juxtapose the natural with dreamlike scenes, with an aim to educate, communicate, and pass on a legacy.

Kupferminc is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and attempts to illustrate loss, displacement and renewal as a path to healing in her “La Piel de la Memoria” installation. During the Holocaust, prisoners received numbered tattoos at the Auschwitz concentration camp as a way for identification purposes. The prisoners were called and had to respond to these numbers. The installation invites as well as requires the viewer’s interaction with the piece. As the visitors entered the space, they are given a henna tattoo or stamped as a way to be categorized whilst those that wore something red would get numbers written on their hands similar to the Auschwitz prisoners. Even though this was an interactive, attention-grabbing portion to have in her installation, I would have liked to have known why those in red had the numbers. The only conclusion I came up with was Kupferminc used the color red to signify blood and the amount of blood that was loss at these camps.

Within the installation were two huge photographs that tied into the art piece. The first image is of her 86 year old, Auschwitz survivor, Argentinean mother with the Holocaust tattoo, and the other image of an Argentinean musician with tattoos all over his arms. The fact that she chose to have these two images creates a sort of juxtaposition because her mothers tattoo was enforced on her, and became part of her identity that she chose not to have it removed but in fact is seen as a reminder of to the world not to forget the Holocaust. In contrast to the musician whose tattoos were by choice, and a collection of words, images, symbols of things he likes/wanted to remember, and therefore decided to permanently depict them on his body. Through these two images, we definitely see Kupferminc’s titled piece “The Skin of Memory” come to life.