The Kiss of Life
Images from a family archive
This exhibition was on show until October 2, 2022
In the installation The Kiss of Life, filmmakers Arnoud Holleman and Batya Wolff depict how photography and film are connected to the processing of the Shoah within Batya's family. Father Max Wolff (96) spent his life working on an immense image archive, bringing together almost a hundred years of Jewish family life. The vast majority of it is from after the war, with only a small part from before – and the devastation of the Holocaust in between. What were the motives for photographing and filming before the war? And what were they after?
Successive generations of Wolff, captured on successive generations of image carriers. Max Wolff took most of the pictures, but the archive also includes images by other photographers. Elly Wolff, Max's older sister, perished in Auschwitz. Harry van Esso, a relative by marriage, perished in Bergen Belsen. Father-in-law Michel Kunstenaar, who, like Max Wolff, wanted to capture the new life after the war. In the art cabinet, the archive is presented in combination with four short films at the intersection of life and death.
Based on the family archive, Holleman and Wolff also made the documentary Vastgelegd (Captured) (co-production De Familie Film & TV and KRO-NCRV), which will be screened several times in the museum during the exhibition. It can also be seen at 2Doc and at festivals.
This installation was on display from April 29 to October 2, 2022, in the Art Gallery of the Jewish Museum.
