September 28, 2018 - June 30, 2019. St. Jakob, AUT

Vermessungsamt

In the summer of 1938, shortly after the “Anschluss”, some 3200 citizens of the “mixed language community” of St. Jakob im Rosental, Stjakob v Rožu were “racially investigated”. These were about eighty percent of the population. A fact that historians knew nothing about until recently. Nobody in the municipality talked about it either – there is only one written report.

“I am writing you from St. Jakob, a little village in Carinthia, Austria. My name is Marjan and I am working for the Slovene cultural association Rož in the south of Austria – 4 km to Slovenian border and 25 km to Italian border. 80 years ago, in the year 1938 Adolf Hitler annected Austria to Germany. Austria did not resist and most of the people cheered and rejoiced because of that annexion.

A few months after the German occupation some “scientists” measured the whole population of St. Jakob ( about 3200 people, almost 80% of the population), just to prove that the “Aryan race” is present in our region, too. After they measured each person`s ears, nose, the colour of the eyes and hair, they marked them with a plus = Aryan= German and a minus = Nonaryan = Slovene.

We did not know about this “race inquiry”, because our parents never talked about it – probably because much worse things happened in our village and all over Europe – the killing of impaired people (euthanasy), deportation of Slovenian families and of course millions of dead in the German Reich.

In memory of this race inquiry and mainly as a warning for the young people not to believe such pseudoscientific tendencies, who by “science” try to prove that there are good and bad people (of course by their criteria) and that can be seen from outside – we are preparing an exhibition about this event in our village. It will be mostly an exhibition against racism.
We are very impressed about your work and of course it would perfectly fit in the concept of our exhibition.
That is why we would like to show your work in our place, too.
We would show this work outside, so people can see it who don`t want to step inside and see the whole exhibition. Your work could be a real provocation and inspiration and this is what we aim to achieve.
Many good wishes and regards from the southern part of Austria.”
All my love for you. Thanks

(Transcript of the first e-mail sent by the team of the Vermessungsamt)

Press

September 28, 2018

Ausstellung Vermessungsamt

About Humanae

Humanae is a photographic work in progress by artist Angélica Dass. Currently composed of almost 4,000 portraits from volunteers all around the globe, Humanæ pursues to document humanity’s true colors and bring up a critical reflection on the white, red, black and yellow false labels associated with race. The project does not select participants and there is no date set for its completion.  It is a journey of open-ended possibilities that enriches the way we see ourselves, beyond faces and colors. Nowadays, the artist has been doing portraits in 36 different cities and 20 different countries.

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