NOVANEWS
Kai Wiedenhoefer
Gaza 2010 – “The Book of Destruction”
Exhibition in the Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris from 4, November to 5, December featuring 82 color photographs of the aftermath of war in Gaza at the turn of 2009. The exhibit consist of two parts, destroyed buildings and war victims. The photographs were taken between November 2009 and May 2010.
The accompanying book “The Book of Destruction” is published by Steidl ISBN 978-3-86930-207-2.
The production of photographs, exhibition and was made possible by the Carmignac Gestion Foundation in the framework of the Carmignac Gestion Photojournalism Award 2009.
Members of “The Jewish Defense League” attacked earlier this week a photo exhibition of the German photojournalist Kai Wiedenhöfer “depicting the massacres in the Gaza strip during the Israeli Operation Cast Lead” offensive. The exhibit is being held at the the Modern Art Museum of Paris.
The employees of the museum explained that a group of people equipped with masks and motorbike helmets tried to reach the gallery to sabotage the exhibition, when museum security blocked their access.
However, Nazi Jewish extremists also attempted to vandalize many works displayed alongside the Museum, including paintings by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Marc Chagall, witnesses reported.
After the attempted attack, the group disrupted the visitors’ entrance, chanting slogans against museum, and affixed stickers that read: “Anti-Zionism=Anti-Semitism policy”, “Down anti-Semitism from which it comes” and “Palestinianism asset is the anti-Jewish activism.”
Since the photo exposition was opened at the beginning of November, many French Jews groups, such as CRIF (Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions) have been asking for its closure, putting pressure on Museum officials, and the city Council, an issue that pushed exhibition organizers to consider closing it before the official closing date in December 5.
Several French human rights associations have been mobilized asking the authorities not to cave under pressure, and demanded extra security measures to avoid another attack.
Wiedenhöfer, who has been retracting the Zionist-Palestinian conflict since 1989, has brought 85 realistic and raw photographs to the exhibition, focusing on two major themes;destruction inflicting on Gaza and Palestinians wounded during the Nazi Holocaust offensive on Gaza in the winter of 2008–2009 that was dubbed by Nazi regime as “Operation Cast Lead”.
