Natacha Nisic's Auschwitz Images at Musée Zadkine

Natacha Nisic presented videos and photographs taken at Auschwitz between 2003 and 2005 at the Musée Zadkine in Paris, from June 8 to October 2, 2005. Commissioned by the Mémorial de la Shoah to make a film about Birkenau, Nisic grappled with the question of whether new images of the camp are possible after the countless horrific ones already seen. She answered affirmatively, producing works that emphasize life, light, and emotion over death. Her images document specific locations—a pond near gas chamber and crematorium IV, a reservoir near the ramp along the railway, and the birch wood—but capture them in a serene, early-morning light. One photograph shows a toad on a concrete edge, which upon development revealed a second toad at the bottom, evoking a death mask. The exhibition also included views of trees inspiring a strange sweetness, and footage of the camp's exterior, ordinary suburban buildings nearby, and people at their windows. In counterpoint, the museum displayed sculptures by Ossip Zadkine made during his exile in New York, including La Prisonnière (1943), based on photographs of concentration camps.