Film Excerpts Screening + Discussion: Denial
The Evidence Room: Memory, History, and Representation Discussion Series
Wednesday, September 4, 2019 | 5:30pm | The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The 2016 feature film Denial and The Evidence Room exhibit are two works of art in dialogue with the same history. The movie and the exhibit, each in its own way, depict and remark upon the 1940-1945 history of World War II, and the legal history of a 1996-2000 libel case decided by the British High Court of Justice largely upon the basis of architectural forensic evidence. They confront terrible realities of The Holocaust, and the strange, insidious, persistent phenomenon of Holocaust denial. The panelists will discuss the issues of fact and law argued in the case, the important implications of the legal precedent, differences between American and British libel law, and the ways that different media and genres of artistic expression affect the viewers and consumers of art.
Dr. Elizabeth “Barry” White, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Amos Friedland, Attorney, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.
Theodore Bogosian, Brown University Professor, filmmaker Genocide 101
Moderator: Thane Rosenbaum, Distinguished Fellow, NYU Law School and Director, Forum on Law, Culture & Society at NYU School of Law
This program is supported by Joleen and Mitch Julis
EVIDENCE: STATE-SPONSORED VIOLENCE AND DENIALISM
The Evidence Room: Memory, History, and Representation Discussion Series
Thursday, August 15, 2019 | 6:30pm | The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
A discussion about The Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, attempts in American literature to grapple with government approved or authorized violence in the United States, and the persistence of denialism of state-sponsored violence throughout world history. What lessons can be learned, what legacies remain after the last survivors and eyewitnesses pass.
Andrew Delbanco, Columbia University, Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies.
Theodore Bogosian, Brown University, filmmaker Genocide 101.
Deborah Lipstadt, Emory University, author Antisemitism Here and Now.
Robert Jan van Pelt, University of Waterloo, architectural historian and Holocaust scholar.
Moderator: Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of Lawfare and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution.
Origins of the Evidence Room
The Evidence Room: Memory, History, and Representation Discussion Series
Sunday, June 23, 2019 | 5:00pm | The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Architectural Historian Robert Jan van Pelt, and architects Anne Bordeleau, and Donald McKay are the artists who conceived, designed and created “The Evidence Room.” They join The Evidence Room Foundation Executive Director Alan Ginsberg to share the origin story of this breakthrough work of fine art.
They drew inspiration from the power of architectural forensic evidence adduced by Professor van Pelt and accepted by The British High Court of Justice as irrefutable proof that the Holocaust occurred in World War II Germany, and that Holocaust denial is a dangerous, insidious, deliberate deception.
The challenges the three artists confronted and overcame arose not only from the difficulty of conceiving and creating the objects that comprise The Evidence Room, but also the daunting question of whether any artistic representation related to the Holocaust can be ethical and adequate. Theodore Adorno articulated this problem with his assertion that “To write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric.”
The discussion will expand on the nature and utility of architecture for the aesthetic expression of human intelligence, ethics, and values.
This program is supported by Mitch and Joleen Julis.
The Artists – Creators of the Evidence Room
Robert Jan van Pelt, University of Waterloo School of Architecture; architectural historian, Holocaust scholar.
Anne Bordeleau, University of Waterloo School of Architecture; architect, historian, author.
Donald McKay, University of Waterloo School of Architecture; architect, urban planner, author.
Moderator: Alan Robert Ginsberg, Executive Director, The Evidence Room Foundation.