Between You and Me

Between You and Me: Memory Boxes by Amos van Gelder and Amit Gur 

Between You and Me is an exhibition of a single work of art: Memory Boxes. This installation, composed by guest curator Birgitta van Blitterswijk, by artist Amos van Gelder and composer Amit Gur shows how different stories and perspectives on the Shoah are nurtured within one family or group.

In Between You and Me artist Amos van Gelder portrays twenty individuals. They are connected by what happened to the Van Gelder family in the Shoah and the artist’s own confrontation with that history. Almost every aspect of the Shoah finds its way into his family’s story: hiding, deportation, betrayal, murder, resistance, Jew hunters, collaboration, Jewish Council, survival and conversion. The portraits are displayed in what the artist calls Memory Boxes – the boxes in which we store the treasured reminders of our past.

Van Gelder expresses the experiences of his subjects in Hebrew, painted in a halo. In the audio guide voices recall brief moments and impressions, while the spoken words are accompanied by a composition by Amit Gur that links the various people through music. A diagram explains how the individuals are connected

Van Gelder’s installation introduces the observer to people who are present in his life and those who are absent, inviting us to contemplate the complexity of the Shoah in a single Dutch Jewish family.

About the artists

Amos van Gelder
Amos van Gelder (b. 1960, Haifa, Israel) studied art in the Netherlands and the United States. He draws inspiration from Israel, the Hebrew language, Jewish tradition and more recently also the Shoah. Memory Boxes is his first work dealing with the Shoah in relation to his family history.

Amit Gur
Amit Gur (b. 1987, Tel Aviv, Israel) studied composition in Jerusalem and Amsterdam and is currently attached to Amsterdam Conservatory as a researcher and teacher. He recently received a doctorate from Antwerp University for his research into composition and the perception of musical texture.

The exhibition Between You and Me is on view from 7 March until 24 August in the National Holocaust Museum.