Os Gemeos - The Brazilian Wonder Twins

[Dee]

Naestved, Denmark

Just look at the detail... the little dog in the boat!

[Dee]

[Dee]

[Dee]

[Dee]

[Dee]

[Dee]

Os Gemeos & JR Memorialize Obscure WWII Nazi Raid on French Instruments

Few of the thousands of attendees who walk the halls of Paris’ Palais de Tokyo every year have any idea that a subterranean network of tunnels below the elite art institution were once the overflow storage space for plundered Nazi pianos as part of the Third Reich’s little-known initiative to confiscate French instruments after occupying Paris in 1940. It’s an obscure bit of WWII history to be sure, but one that’s now been memorialized by artistic comrades-in-arms JR & Os Gemoes whose new collaboration—featuring a combination of JR’s photographic wheatpaste pianos & the Brasilian wondertwin’s yellow spray-painted characters on the walls of the tunnels below the museum—pays visual homage to the space’s once-sinister usage.

http://www.supertouchart.com/2016/04/09 ... struments/

Spoiler:

Shedding more light on the subject is author Richard Z. Chesnoff, who detailed the Nazi’s wartime assault on French music & musicians in his 2001 book, 'Pack of Thieves: How Hitler & Europe Plundered the Jews and Committed the Greatest Theft in History':

“Nor was music immune from the Nazi’s reach. In August of 1940, just a month after Reichsleiter Rosenberg had established the first ERR office in Paris, a special Sonderstab Musik division of his operation was opened under the direction of Haupstellenleiter Herbert Gerigk. Its assigned task: to confiscate ancient French musical manuscripts as well as anything connected to music that belonged to Jews—instruments, books, scores, and recordings. Berlin’s instructions to Gerigk were “to process music literature, music paraphernalia, and music manuscripts … and … to prepare them for shipment to Berlin, Leipzig, and Upper Bavaria.

The Sonderstab Musik raids on apartments in Paris and homes in the countryside, many of them abandoned or sealed, swept up not only pianos, violins, and other instruments belonging to individual Jewish families but also the personal collections of such international musical luminaries as Wanda Landowska, Darius Milhaud, and Arthur Rubinstein. A special series of music warehouses was established in Paris and equipped for storage and inventory of the instruments prior to their shipment to Germany. Three of the warehouses were devoted only to pianos. Another, on the rue Bassano ,was expressly created to house ‘small instruments.’

It was an enormous, if evil, task. According to a comprehensive study of Sonderstab Musik by Amsterdam University’s Willem de Vries, 1.500 workers were employed at the height of the Musik Aktion just to empty the ones of musically inclined French Jews. An average of two loot-laden trains departed for Germany each week—and at least one freight car in each shipment was loaded with musical instruments, gramophones, and music books.”

[Dee]

[Dee]

[Dee]

Spoiler:

Have you spotted JR's photographic figure amongst the little yellow people of Os Gemeos?

[Moonchime]

I've loved looking at the work of these brothers - I think I prefer their more muted work to the really colourful patterns - but then I love some of those too so I'm still not sure.
The pictures with children and parents are very endearing and have such a soulful quality about them; the child hugging her dad, the mother holding the baby with the little girl hiding behind her.
Then you've got those clever ones like the guy on the back of the train and the almost cylindrical people like wooden dolls.
Even with the darker material with the pianos (I didn't know about the pianos - about art work yes but not the pianos) their work is full of pathos - including in the eyes of the dogs; how do you get so much expression in a face with so few details?
I think the addition of the JR's boy is great - it just fits so well and makes the work of all artists stand out even more.
Brilliant.

[Lori]

Very interesting history and info on the tunnels. So sad. I like the little surprises these two put in their works..it's almost like nesting dolls sometimes - the small figure may hold an even smaller figure in its hand for instance. It's nice that they work together.