Letters to Yesterday
Exhibition and residency at the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre 
In May 2022 Elias Mendel embarked on his first solo exhibition at the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide centre. The exhibition included self-portraits, diaries, charcoal drawings, charcoal stop-motion- animation, watercolour tapestries and a sulptural piece. This work all examined Mendel’s relationship and work on his personal German Jewish family history and archive.
Alongside the exhibition Mendel embarked on a series of workshops varying from school learners to poets, to talks and peformances engaging with the South Africa chapter of his family story.
Exhibition at the Casablanca Art Beinale 2022
Elias Mendel’s first formal exhibition took place at the Casablanca Art Beinale, ‘The Words Create Images’, which was a unique oppertunity to have his work in collaboration with many globally emerging and established artists.
Exhibition of his work in Casablanca
The Frankfurterstrasse 99 series
The archive contains hundreds of letters addressed to 99 Frankfurterstrasse where my grandfather was born in Offenbach near Frankfurt. It is a space imbued with huge significance. It is where my great grandmother mother received news of my great grandfather’s death in the First World War, and from where my great grandmother was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942. The house was destroyed by allied bombing in 1945. There are hundreds of letters in our archive addressed to this house.
Angels in the Archive
"The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead and make whole what has been smashed" Walter Benjamin
Work utilising legacy of terrestrial Angels as a way of looking back at my family history. Inspired by the writings of Walter Benjamin in the Angel of History, Rainer Maria Rilker’s Duino Elergies and WimoWenders Wings of Desire. I position my Angels within my artworks and within my family archive to think about the passing of time and the impact of trauma on memory.
Tears of Memory
With these pieces I am utilising some of the most striking statements made by my ancestors; drawing the spirit from their words reanimates these moments in time.
In the weeks before his death in the trenches my great-grandfather wrote: “My dear ones, we are still living in holes in the ground, but they are so comfortable that we could not ask for anything better. I wish you could see how idyllic it is here. Your eyes, ears and nose would be surprised. Warm regards to you all.” These are just a few of the words across this expansive archive. Through my own contemporary lens I can give new life to this collection. I take seriously the responsibility to use my art to bring this story to wider attention and build memorials that will continue to resonate.
Memorial in Memorium
