Holocaust survivor Elisaveta, Roy’s grandmother, tries to tell the story of her youth in the small Slovakian village up to her terrible experiences in the concentration camp in front of a camera.
In the first part of the trilogy «And we worked … », family members visit Elisaveta to interview her on camera. Employees of the Yad Vashem memorial then appear for a professional video interview and, in the final part, two young Israeli soldiers are commissioned to present Elisaveta with a hero medal.
In the encounter with the eyewitness Elisaveta, the protagonists in Markovich’s observations become increasingly entangled in absurd situations. In the middle of the video interview, the pizza courier rings, the professionals at the Yad Vashem memorial negotiate expense allowances with each other and the young soldiers talk about themselves.
In the end, the old woman’s life story remains unheard. At the end of the video, Elisaveta appears to us as the real and steadfast heroine, while around her there is a neurotic, overwhelmed and self-absorbed hullabaloo.
“And we worked …” deals with human behaviour in the face of a topic that cannot actually be dealt with. Everyday life challenges everyone equally, life goes on, and yet the Holocaust is and remains a monstrous trauma that constantly challenges Israeli society, the Jewish community and the global community and calls for an adequate remembrance in the future. “And we worked …” is despite everything and above all a humorous video that relentlessly shows human inadequacy, shakes up universal taboos, stirs and moves.
The installation ‘And we worked …’ at the stand at Kunst13 was awarded the sponsorship prize by the external jury.
Roy Menachem Markovich, born 1979 in Tel Aviv, lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel.