ARKS - Starting At Zero

The last two days of this June were dedicated to the project of rescuing and revitalizing the original textile factory of the Löw-Beer family in Brno, known from the story of Oskar Schindler and his wife Emilie, who saved more than 1300 Jews during the Holocaust. A museum and an educational programme centre will be built in the former factory.

The ARKS Foundation, together with the Terezín Initiative Institute and other partners, organized the second annual meeting of schools from several European countries participating in the museum project. Throughout the year, students and their teachers had the opportunity to prepare a presentation in which they shared what the concept of the upcoming institution should be and what its exhibitions should contain. The first day's meeting took place on the factory premises, now undergoing extensive renovation, and was attended by Erika Rosenberg, who was a close friend of Emilie Schindler, whom she wrote several important books on.

The programme continued on the second day in Brno, in the iconic setting of Villa Tugendhat (the Löw-Beers and the Tugendhats are the same family), where the exhibition Starting At Zero opened. The exhibition presents the works of exceptional women artists of the Bauhaus period, textile artists Anni Albers, Otti Berger, Lilly Reich and ceramist Lucia Rie, associated with their work on the interior of Villa Tugendhat. Today, their works are among the most significant and enduring legacies of the 20th century art industry.

The highlight of the program was the installation of a replica of the original Lilly Reich carpet. The accompanying programme included student presentations, a fashion show of garments whose materials were created according to the technologies of the textile artists mentioned above, as well as a concert and other social gatherings.

The Arks Foundation and our Institute are now discussing the possibility of presenting the exhibition to a Prague audience in the autumn.

Read also

• Workshop "Just an Ordinary Day"
• Human Rights Anchored in International Law
• Networking workshop: ‘Places of Nazi forced labour in northern Bohemia and Saxony’
• Invite ZINE Workshop by AFYN - 26th October 2024
• Workshop Art Against Death
• Karel Cudlín's Photography Workshop
• NMŠ: The Sadness and Joy of History
• Tour of the Jewish quarter as part of an educational trip for trainee lawyers at Leipzig Regional Court
• GEDENKDIENST: Volunteer Rotation