Artist Marina Abramovic's 'Crystal Wall of Crying' commemorates Jews killed in Babyn Yar massacre

Record ID: 1640144

  • Title: Artist Marina Abramovic's 'Crystal Wall of Crying' commemorates Jews killed in Babyn Yar massacre
  • Date: 6th October 2021
  • Summary: KYIV, UKRAINE (OCTOBER 4, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ARTIST, MARINA ABRAMOVIC, WALKING PAST HER ARTWORK 'CRYSTAL WALL OF CRYING', TOUCHING CRYSTALS STICKING OUT OF WALL CRYSTAL STICKING OUT OF WALL ABRAMOVIC WALKING PAST WALL, ACCOMPANIED BY A COLLEAGUE (MUTE) TRACKING SHOT OF WALL (SOUNDBITE) (English) PERFORMANCE ARTIST, MARINA ABRAMOVIC, SAYING: "It's really wall for healing and it's wall to remember and it's a wall for the public to actually interact all the time. It is not something… I don't like monuments when you have a huge monument and you stand in front and you look at the monument. It's just like you are a voyeur. Here, you have to touch, you have to interact, you have to turn and you have to, you know, confront yourself with yourself and your own memory. So it is a very different way of seeing art and seeing the monuments." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING PAST THE WALL AS PART OF REHEARSAL BEFORE THE OFFICIAL UNVEILING CEREMONY VARIOUS OF PEOPLE FACING WALL, TOUCHING CRYSTALS (SOUNDBITE) (English) PERFORMANCE ARTIST, MARINA ABRAMOVIC, SAYING: "It is heavy energy. You know, it is very interesting - you come here and you look that this is a park. There are so many trees, so much nature, it is so much life. You know, people come here to sit on the sun, little children are playing, but all of this, you know, is one part of reality. But another part of reality - you know that something terrible-terrible happened at the same time. And that kind of memory can't leave you. So you have this mix of feeling beauty and heaviness and past which is there all the time." (MUTE) VARIOUS OF DRONE FOOTAGE SHOWING 'CRYSTAL WALL OF CRYING' (SOUNDBITE) (English) PERFORMANCE ARTIST, MARINA ABRAMOVIC, SAYING: "So I wanted to say that I want to create the image that is transcendental about any war at any time at any place. Because you know, it looks like a human being can never stop the violence. Whatever we are doing, there is always violence, there is always a war somewhere, there is always something that we should not do as people, you know. And I love to create images that teach us: "Stop that" and that image can serve for the people to recognize it. And this is why for me this wall is so important." VARIOUS OF ABRAMOVIC TALKING TO PEOPLE NEXT TO MONUMENT
  • Embargoed: 20th October 2021 13:11
  • Keywords: Holocaust Kyiv World War Two mass killings of Jews massacre performance artist
  • Location: KYIV, UKRAINE
  • City: KYIV, UKRAINE
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Art,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe
  • Reuters ID: LVA001EY0U2IV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A group of people walks slowly in silence past a stand-alone thick wall made of coal with massive quartz crystals sticking out of it. People then pause to touch the crystals and stand close to the 40-meter-long structure, some with closed eyes.
    "The Crystal Wall of Crying", an interactive installation by world-renowned performance artist Marina Abramovic, was erected in Ukraine's capital at Babyn Yar to commemorate Jews killed there in one of the biggest massacres of the Holocaust during World War Two.
    Ukraine marks this September and October the 80th anniversary since the Nazi troops gunned down nearly 34,000 Jewish men, women, and children at the wooded ravine of Babyn Yar.
    Being a symbolic extension of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the artwork by Abramovic is a "wall for healing," the 74-year-old told Reuters.
    "I don't like monuments when you have a huge monument and you stand in front and you look at the monument," said Abramovic, who is famed for her endurance performances and intimate interactions with gallery visitors.
    "Here, you have to touch, you have to interact, you have to turn and you have to, you know, confront yourself with yourself and your own memory."
    Have been born in 1946, Abramovic said she learned about WWII and concentration camps being a child - from her parents, at school, in the movies.
    Being stricken by a mixture of heavy energy and greenery of the ravine which is a park now, Abramovic said she had to come to the site many times to decide on the monument form and materials to use.
    Known for work with crystals, the artist choose anthracite from Ukrainian mines and rock quartz crystals from Brazil, saying they are sources of energy.
    According to Abramovic, the artwork is a reminder to mankind to stop wars.
    "I want to create the image that is transcendental about any war at any time at any place."
    "Whatever we are doing, there is always violence, there is always a war somewhere, there is always something that we should not do as people. And I love to create images that teach us: "Stop that."
    The monument will be unveiled on Wednesday (October 6) evening during the official commemorative ceremony where Presidents of Ukraine, Israel, and Germany will take part.
    (Production: Sergiy Karazy, Margaryta Chornokondratenko)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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