To mark the International Day dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and the prevention of crimes against humanity, the Maison de l’UNESCO in Paris presented, in January 2014, the exhibition Les Rescapés de la Shoah – Courage, Volonté, Vie (« Survivors of the Holocaust – Courage, Will, Life »), devoted to the work of artist Alain Husson-Dumoutier, a UNESCO Artist for Peace.
Since 2007, the artist has been meeting survivors of the Holocaust and collecting their testimonies. From these exchanges, he creates their portraits and seeks to shed light on their journeys, their experience of survival and their ability to rebuild their lives after the war.
Over several years, he thus met 35 survivors and created their portraits. Each work is accompanied by a text or a sentence drawn from their testimony, making the exhibition a whole in which painting and words speak to each other.
My aim was never to make academic portraits, but to convey what their eyes were telling, what their voices made resonate within meAlain Husson-Dumoutier, painter
Shown at UNESCO in Paris in 2014, the exhibition was then hosted at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, from 2 to 28 September 2016, where 35 paintings were presented. It thus continues its work of passing on history through the stories and portraits of those who survived the Holocaust.
The exhibition was produced with the support of SNCF.
