{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1780407"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1780407/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024NV9913/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024NV9913/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2024NV9913","copyright":"© Anton Kusters","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1780407","accessionNumber":"PH.145:200-2023","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"München-Oberföhring (Bauleitung der Waffen-SS) , 0000007 (est.) , 48.16405, 11.622845 , CO","type":"Assigned by artist"},{"title":"Amstetten II (Women) , 0000495 (est.) , 48.111009, 14.878572 , EX","type":"Assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Anton Kusters is a Belgian multidisciplinary visual artist who lives and works in Belgium and Tokyo. He studied photography at STUK Leuven and the Academy of Fine Arts, Hasselt. His work has been featured in numerous publications and has been exhibited in Europe, China and Australia. Stemming from a documentary approach, Kusters is interested in the limits of understanding, the difficulties of representing trauma and loss, and the act of commemoration.\n\r\nFor The Blue Skies Project, prompted by his family’s own history, Kusters researched locations of Nazi camps of detention, persecution, forced labour and murder. Travelling to a total of 1,078 locations in Europe, Kusters made three unique 8 x 10 cm Polaroid photographs of the sky as close as possible to each site. These he tagged with the GPS coordinates and the number of deaths estimated at the location. Such stark data combined with this systematic approach make a chilling reference to the catastrophic efficiency of the Nazi’s programme of extermination throughout Europe.\n\r\nKusters’ unique documentary approach is based on his use of a Polaroid camera, known for its immediacy, to create pictures that operate at the border of abstract photography rather than providing a representational image. With this, Kusters challenges the expectations of his audience and questions the capability of the medium as a reliable witness of historical events.","physicalDescription":"Polaroid photograph. A large blue circle dominates the picture against a black background. Whispy white areas which look like clouds can be seen in the right side of the blue circle. A series of numbers are stamped at the bottom of the picture.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Anton Kusters","id":"AUTH350720"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"AAT25687"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"Photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"photography","id":"AAT54225"},{"text":"Polaroid","id":"AAT163165"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"polariod photograph, printed","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"},{"text":"photography","id":"THES394546"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"DOP","id":"THES291628"},"images":["2024NV9913"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"315","id":"THES49535"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":"München-Oberföhring (Bauleitung der Waffen-SS)"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2012–2017","earliest":"2012-01-01","latest":"2017-12-31"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Donated by Dirk Spillebeen & Anne Carlier - IFBD Ltd","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"260","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"250","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Polaroid by Anton Kusters from 'The Blue Skies Project', 2012-2017","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Under Anton Kusters’ blue skies lies a traumatic past. Between 2012 and 2017, Kusters travelled to the last known location of every Nazi concentration or extermination camp, most of which are today unmarked. Every time, he turned his lens towards the sky.\r\nEach of his 1078 photographs, stamped with the number of victims at that site and its GPS coordinates, highlights the vast scale of the genocide conducted by the Nazi regime. An audiovisual piece by Ruben Samama runs alongside the images, tracking the death-toll and counting down the seconds in real-time from the closure of the last camp in 1945 to the opening of the first in 1933.regime. An audiovisual piece by Ruben Samama runs alongside the images, tracking the death-toll and counting down the seconds in real-time from the closure of the last camp in 1945 to the opening of the first in 1933.\r\nOver time the photographs will fade, but the numbers will remain, becoming a monument to the conservation of memory. Kusters invites us to contemplate how we commemorate traumatic events and to reflect on our place within history.","date":{"text":"05/06/2024","earliest":"2024-06-05","latest":"2024-06-05"}}],"partNumbers":["PH.145:200-2023"],"accessionNumberNum":"145","accessionNumberPrefix":"PH","accessionYear":2023,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-08-29","recordCreationDate":"2024-05-23","availableToBook":false}}