Isabelle Rozenbaum (France)
Sometimes called an “ethno-culinary” photographer, Isabelle Rozenbaum’s work seeks to capture and understand our most basic gestures, our cultural traditions, and the transmission of knowledge between and among peoples—in the world of gastronomy and wine as well as in the milieus of literature and contemporary art. Her videos on dreams are an extension of her previous series on intimacy, self-portraits, and the world of dreaming.
Title: Two Trees, 2009, 11:47
The title “Two Trees” reflects the subject matter of this film. Two women whose names end in -baum – which means ‘tree’ in German – talk about their roots, shared across two generations. Frida, 81 years old, and myself, 49. She is a survivor of the gas chambers the concentration camps of Poland, Germany and Russia. Nightmares – images of the dead haunt her, she whispers. Frida’s trauma lives on. Deep in their consciences, the survivors know perfectly well that the threat still lurks in our modern societies.