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The Architecture of the U.S. Holocaust Museum

Hermine Freed

1996 00:58:00 United StatesEnglishColorMono4:3Video
Tags:
Architecture, Documentary, History, Jewish

Description

Hermine Freed collaborates with James Ingo Freed to create a video essay/documentary that reflects upon memories of the holocaust during the design of a US memorial building. Hermine Freed provides video accompaniment that brings to life a lecture entitled The Architecture of the United States Holocaust Museum conducted by James Ingo Freed for the Architectural League at Rockefeller University, New York on November 11th 1993. A recording of the lecture is woven together with archive footage, interviews and imagery the building itself to offer a rich insight into the creative design of a challenging and significant memorial. Interviewees include Joseph Giovanini, Brendan Gill and Herbert Muschamp who reflect upon this work toward the museum. The video reveals some of the horrific architectural designs that were implemented during construction of Nazi concentration camps and demonstrates how this particular memorial building commemorates such atrocities. Challenges in design of the museum such as the restricted space, surrounding buildings, construction materials, experiential considerations and issues of style are discussed in depth. This work presents a comprehensive study of an accomplished architectural design delivered in a personal and detailed manner which is illustrated here in video form.

About Hermine Freed

Hermine Freed studied painting at Cornell University and New York University. During the late '60s she taught at NYU, working as program editor for an NYU-sponsored series on art books for WNYC. Assisted by colleague Andy Mann, she began using video to produce a series of contemporary artist portraits, beginning with painter James Rosenquist. Although the program did not meet WNYC's broadcast standards, Freed continued to produce the series, showing the tapes to her students and at other venues. In 1972 she was invited to participate in the groundbreaking exhibition Circuit: A Video Invitational by Everson Museum curator David Ross, whose encouragement led her to explore other aspects of the medium and produce a new body of work. Freed continued to produce both documentaries and artworks exploring female perception and self-image. Art Herstory (1974) was made while she was an artist-in-residence at the Television Lab at WNET. Freed taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York from 1972. She passed away in 1998.