CANCEL COLLECTION (2011-18) is a multimedia project that addresses the pervasive topics of memory, postmemory, and absence at locations of historical erasure. Since 2011, Katz has researched and created site-specific work in Romania, Moldova, and the region of former Yugoslavia at locations of Jewish history that no longer exist – places that have been either destroyed and built-over or repurposed – and erased from collective memory of surrounding societies.
The work was supported through Katz’s 2013 crowdfunding campaign which yielded donations from over 130 international funders including performance artist Marina Abramovic, violinist Itzhak Perlman, and White House appointee to the Commission on the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, Richard Weisberg. Katz has also worked in cooperation with Embassies of Israel in Serbia and Romania, Goethe Centers of Iasi and Cluj in Romania, the U.S. Embassy of Kosovo, and the Goethe Institute of Bucharest. Contemporary art collaborators include Stacion Center for Contemporary Art of Pristina, REX Cultural Center of Belgrade, KSA:K of Chisinau, Fabrica de Pensule of Cluj, and Platforma MNAC Anexa of Bucharest. Excerpts of the project premiered in 2015 in a solo exhibition within the Jewish Cultural Days of Aachen/Germany at Kunstwechsel, curated by Wolfgang Becker (pictured here).
Photography: Kojo