Griselda Pollock writes that the main difference between those who
originally wound up at places like Auschwitz Birkenau and today’s visitors
is that today’s visitors are free to leave. So what motivates people to
visit Europe’s most notorious sites of mass extermination, many of which
have become must-see destinations on Europe’s 21st century grand tour? Who
visits these places? And what might these sites and journeys represent to
visitor, artist, scholar and state?

In addressing these questions Journeys through the Holocaust brings together
an international group of scholars, visual artists, film makers and curators
whose work focuses on the Holocaust as a contemporary discursive,
ideological and economic phenomenon, as well as a broader set of concerns
related to what has recently been termed ‘dark tourism’.

Journeys through the Holocaust coincides with Paul Antick’s itourist?, a
multi-media project that uses billboard art, writing and the internet to
pose a series of questions about the relationship between representations of
the Holocaust, Jewish identities and mass tourism in the 21st century.
During December 2006 fourteen billboards will be simultaneously situated in
Southampton, London and Terezin (Theresienstadt ) in the Czech Republic. An
accompanying website allows audiences the opportunity to comment on the
billboards as well as other related materials featured at the website.

Speakers

• Tim Cole (Bristol University, ‘Selling the Holocaust: From Auschwitz to
Schindler, How History Is Bought, Packaged and Sold’)

• Elle Flanders (Dir. ‘Zero Degrees of Separation’) & Kay Dickinson
(Goldsmiths College)

• Tobias Brinkmann (Parkes Institute for Jewish/non-Jewish Relations,
University of Southampton)

• Victor Seedman (University of Luton)

• Richard W. Hill (Middlesex University)

• Paul Antick (Middlesex University)

Journeys Through the Holocaust will be introduced by Professor Tony Kushner
(Parkes Institute for Jewish/non-Jewish Relations, University of Southampton)


Tickets:

£7.50 / £10 at the door / Free for students with proof of status (conditions
apply). Advanced booking is highly recommended.

To book: telephone John Hansard Gallery 023 8059 2158 or e-mail
journeys@hansard gallery.org.uk

For further information on itourist? or Journeys through the Holocaust visit
www.visual-culture.com

To find out more about the Parkes Institute for Jewish/non-Jewish Relations,
University of Southampton, visit www.parkes.soton.ac.uk

itourist? and Journeys through the Holocaust are presented in collaboration
with John Hansard Gallery and are supported by Middlesex University, Center
for Contemporary Art Prague, Parkes Institute for Jewish / non-Jewish
Relations (University of Southampton) and Museum of Domestic Art and
Architecture (MoDA, Middlesex University).