ARTISTS TALKING

# 1 [29 September 2008]

Originally a military base, this camp in Rivesaltes (near Perpignan) has a really dark history. It has been used to hide people away, those whom society has rejected. The Spanish fleeing Franco's regime were put there. Then Jews, along with the other groups targeted by the Nazi regime; then the Harkis (the Algerians who fought for the French during the Algerian War of Independence) and, more recently, as a detention centre for those immigrants without the relevant visas. 

The site was recently bought by the regional council and finally, after much debate, it has been decided to build a memorial, a place to remember the appalling way in which people have been treated here. It is also being used as a place for exhibitions and artists, musicians and poets come together here to respond to the site.

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/

# 2 [30 September 2008]

I started filming in Camp Joffre, initially in the area which was still in use as a detention centre for "illegal" immigrants (often asylum seekers). I didn't really understand at that stage the geography of the camp (it is vast). I was stopped by a police officer and asked what I was doing!

Later I found the part of the camp which was used during the Second World War. It is known as "îlot F"(the name of the barracks in that area). I made several hours of walks through the undergrowth and over the tiles, through the buildings and along the old barbed wire. The atmosphere was eerie. It is quite an exposed place, the power of the wind must have made life uncomfortable for those living there. 

I started working on the footage. Some of the walks could be used in their entirety, uncut. The images were surprisingly beautiful. I felt that I needed to work on the sound: I liked the idea of juxtaposing these images with a more sinister sound track to reflect the atmosphere of the camp. I had recorded my footsteps during the walks and I played with the frequencies to create the effect I wanted. 

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/

# 3 [6 October 2008]

My videos have been well received, especially in the UK. In France the Memorial Commission are interested in a screening in the camp, but it is difficult to pin them down to a date.

The most recent project in which I have been involved was "War and Peace" organised by Fiona Meadley in September 2008 for World Peace Day. Films by 8 artists were shown in venues including the Arnolfini, Bristol. One of my Rivesaltes films was chosen. The showreel was really powerful and followed by a discussion chaired by Prof Paul Gough. http://www.war-and-peace.info/  

Discussion extracts:

Paul Gough:

Tell us about your video.

Jonathan Moss:

In the context of the other videos it’s quite surprising to see something so abstract with little relation to anything figurative. The subject-matter is the Holocaust and France's involvement in the Final Solution. ...

I like to play with the idea of beauty and horror existing at the same time, I try to create seductive images which are beautiful, yet with something really quite macabre going on underneath.

...

PG:

Peace is very difficult to articulate visually... Jonathan mentioned that what seems outwardly rather calm and beautiful masks some of the worst things that have ever happened. Jonathan’s work is on an edge.

You want to make them interesting for people to look at, films that are engaging. If they’re too polemic people switch off, there is a kind of seduction going on.

JM:

I hope my work works in a visual way, then you receive a ‘punch’ when you realise where its made. It’s this impact which I think makes it powerful...

Audience question:

What drew you to make films about Rivesaltes... What is it that has value for you personally?

JM:

I always have to have a connection with the landscape or it has to be linked to my family heritage... the first time I passed the camp I thought, what is that? ... it’s a land with a history, that’s what’s important to me. I’ve recently been exploring my family’s Jewish heritage... I felt that it is something that I really should be involved in and try to understand better.

...

PG:

You are clearly involved.

JM:

Yes. So much so that I wanted to actually volunteer at the camp, but they've closed it. I felt that I needed to get out of the studio to make my experience of making the work more real. As you mentioned you do get caught up in making images work visually, I felt that something rooting me in reality would be good. But I'm still searching to be involved in other ways.

...

Audience comment:

When a film becomes abstract it really starts to engage your mind, it challenges you and gives you the space that you get with Jonathan’s film... to understand and to reflect on the subject... It helps when viewing the variety of films here tonight.

PG:

I agree.

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/

# 4 [11 October 2008]

Along the coast around Perpignan there are many sites of WW2 holding camps originally created for refugees escaping Franco's Spain.

Argeles today is known as a seaside resort, so I thought it would be a good idea to film what remains of the camp from where interns were sent to Rivesaltes. What I found was a vast expanse of wasteland bordering the sea, an area of scrub-land with only cacti for vegetation.

It’s out of season, so there were hardly any holiday-makers, just a few naked old men scattered along the beach enjoying the last of the summer sun. Even at midday the place was eerie, no huts remained, just areas where buildings obviously had been.

I walked over the scrub, an area fenced off as a nature reserve.

Vast, empty, bleak and silent (apart from a few birds singing, passing through, heading south) as if the past history of this place could not be completely obliterated.

I walked in circles for over an hour through this bland repetitive piece of land, no distinguishing features, just barren, not a lot of notable features to film, quite monotonous.

As I walked back to the car I passed a camp-site, mobile homes enclosed by a large wall, my friend asked me what they reminded me of, I answered the concentration camp at Rivesaltes – what a bizarre place to holiday.

I now have cactus thorns in my feet, in fact embedded in my shoes; not the most comfortable walk I’ve ever made, but I'm sure I have some footage I can use.

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/

# 5 [14 October 2008]

The weather was pretty bad in our village, in fact it was completely hidden in cloud, so I thought it was a good idea to head for the coast. On the way I decided to make an unplanned stop at the camp at Rivesaltes – probably my 20^th visit, so I didn’t expect to find anything new . . . I was a bit shocked to see, close-up, the large section of the huts (in fact a whole row) demolished. Next to the pile of rubble a sign read – Rivesaltes camp: Restoration of the barracks – it struck me as an odd take on restoration.

I have spoken with the director of the memorial and she had told me the huts themselves were going to be the memorial with a monument / visitor centre positioned next to them. I suppose some huts had to go to make room for the centre.

I made some footage of the debris (a large pile of wooden planks from the rooves and concrete from the walls), a video-walk around it. I had my 4 yr old son Louis with me – I told him not to talk (a bit hopeful). For over 3 minutes he repeated the words “Are there any people here?", I’m sure I can use that somehow.

Heading for the coast I followed one of the camp’s tracks, not one I’d followed before; it took me to an industrial estate. The other side of the estate I waited at a railway-crossing for a train to pass (Perpignan to Paris) – I noticed a siding, just 500m from the camp; I knew that Jews were taken to Auschwitz by train, in cattle-wagons, via Drancy in Paris, but presumed they only walked to the town of Rivesaltes to be loaded on to trains. This nondescript missable piece of railway track played a role in one of the worst episodes of the history of mankind – people must pass it everyday (as they do the camp) and be unaware of its reason for being. I plan to return to the siding to film it whilst walking, something repetitive and rhythmic, perhaps even encouraging reflection on the history of this part of France.

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/

# 6 [15 October 2008]

Yesterday evening I found out that a short clip of one of my Rivesaltes videos has been included by the Frieze Foundation for their film "Road Movie" and will be shown on Channel 4 tomorrow (Thursday 16th October) during the "Three-Minute Wonder" slot at 7.55pm after the News. It is the fourth film in a series shown since Monday. All four films can be viewed on You tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTbcnolKJB8

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/

# 7 [17 October 2008]

I watched the Frieze 3 Minute Wonder last night on Channel 4, interesting to see my video-walk from the camp in that context. I was pleased to have my name on the end credits as a director of the piece; it came up as ‘Jonathan Moss Video’, which I use as my user name on YouTube. Helen (my wife) joked that it was a good thing I didn’t upload the video under my other user name (which I use for my non art-related videos): ‘Jonny Moscovitch’. It sounds comic, but in a round-about way may have been appropriate as Moscovitch is the original surname of my Jewish family who travelled to Britain from Russia as refugees at the end of the 19^th Century.

A few weeks ago, during the discussion following the War and Peace screening at the Arnolfini, one of the audience asked why I am so interested in the camp at Rivesaltes, was it simply that it is a landscape local to me? It is my love of landscape which led me to film at Rivesaltes initially – the fact that the landscape has a dark history which is connected to my family’s heritage made it real to me personally.

I like that my videos work on two levels, they present beautiful images but of a landscape that has a horrific past (a ‘landscape of trauma’, as Paul Gough would describe it).

I still find it difficult to believe that in such an idyllic part of France a camp of this kind could have existed – every time I visit the camp the atmosphere is heavy with the weight of the past: 2,313 Jews were sent to Auschwitz from there during a 2 month period during 1942, the remaining 3,000 died at the camp from disease and malnutrition and this was in ‘Free-France’, they were sent by the French from an area not governed by Germany.

‘Le Camp de Rivesaltes, 1941-1942’. Anne Boitel:

The existence of the camp is still a thorny subject in France, the darkest point of those shadowy years. The term ‘camp de concentration’ was used by the French government. Although camps were never intended for such an appalling purpose many did die as a result of starvation rations and Rivesaltes was the first step towards extermination as internees were deported to Auschwitz.

I plan to visit the camp over the next few days, this time to project my videos on to the walls of the huts at night and to photograph the images made.

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/

# 8 [18 October 2008]

I have been painting today. It's funny that initially I attempted to recreate the images of my paintings in video and now I am basing my paintings on the stills of the videos. It is also strange how my videos are abstract but the stills themselves become more figurative - details emerge: grass, rocks, textures of dry earth...

My work has always been based on memories of walks in the landscape and I thought why can't the walk itself could be the end result, recorded through video?

It is easy to be absorbed in the process of working with images in the studio, which is important, but I felt with this project that it is vital for me to be personally involved in the camp at Rivesaltes; I have requested to be a volunteer at the detention centre which holds refugees awaiting visas, situated on the edge of the camp where my videos are made.

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/

# 9 [22 October 2008]

I've just returned from a bitterly cold and blustery evening spent at the camp. I went with Peter Watkins, a photographer who is staying with us. Equipped with a generator, projector, laptop and a large format camera we were ready for a night of image-making.

We projected my video-stills (previously made at the camp) on to the huts and then photographed them - I took a few digital shots to get an idea, but the large format shots will probably suffer due to the strong wind and long exposures.

The wind whistled through the decaying hut in which we were based, equipment was blown around violently, I could hear dogs, but Peter assured me it was just the wind. It struck me that, not that long ago, innocent people slept in this small space and experienced similar noises and cold on this desolate plain.

Friedal Bohny-Reitel the Swiss Red Cross worker in her Journal wrote on the 5th December 1941:

Glacial wind, crystalline skies, moonlit nights and so very cold. In the barracks they are freezing, shivering in their beds. I am full of important rage at such misery.

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/

# 10 [6 November 2008]

I was house-sitting for a friend last week at Elne, whilst I was there I visited the Maternite Suisse D'Elne (Swiss Maternity Hospital at Elne) which was active from 1939 - 1944. At this converted mansion mothers who were held captive at the camps of Rivesaltes, Barcares, St Cyprien and Argeles could go to the hospital to give birth (4 weeks prior and 4 weeks following, they then returned to the camps). It belonged to a local family and rented by the OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, a Russian Jewish organisation dedicated to the welfare of refugee children during the Holocaust).

The house was restored last year and is now a museum documenting the work of a Red Cross worker: Elisabeth Eidenbenz, who set up and managed the hospital - she saved the lives of 500 children.

Whilst I was there, there was a large Spanish family looking around, three generations, some were moved to tears as they looked at the exhibits. I watched as they posed for photographs. I presume that one of the family was born at the hospital during the war. 

The house has a really peaceful atmosphere which reflects its role during the war as a little pocket of hope in the midst of despair at the camps. 

As part of my documentation of the camps of this area of France I plan to return to make some videos (once I have completed editing recent footage made at Rivesaltes and Argeles).

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/