During summer 2014 Shimon Lev and Friedemann Derschmidt exhibited their joint project “two family archives” in P8 gallery in Tel Aviv. This was followed by several exhibitions, presentations, screenings, installations, and lectures done under this label in Austria, Germany, and Israel.
Both artists have been investigating their family narratives and working with their family heritage for more than 20 years. While Lev is the son of a holocaust survivor, Derschmidt has to face the fact that the generations of his grandparents and great grandparents have been active Nazis in Austria and Germany. The two artists collaborating in trying to find strategies of communication beyond the known paths.
The project is emphasizing the question of whether and how it can be possible to understand mechanisms, that trace back to the beginning of the 19th century, which made the Shoah possible. Derschmidts great grandfather was a medical doctors and one of the most prominent eugenisist in Austria. So the question of the role of back then modern science and it’s legacy will be as well topic as well as questions of ethics, science and religion – Shimon Lev’s father was an internationally well known physicist. The two artists countinue to develop the project and are trying to find new and unconventional ways to talk about trans- generational inheritance and it’s impact to our individual biographies on one side and the question of “how to overcome” the limitations of the personal social determinations in order to be able to start a dialog.

Each one will give a 25 min presentation of his part, which will be followed by joint video work, “His- story. Discussion will be followed afterwards.