Ilse Frech

Exile: Belonging as a work-in-progress and research project in and of itself, explores the perception of image and the translation of reciprocity, either disruption, between the concept of ‘memory-image’ and ‘language as image’, finding common ground through a filmic narrative, that of both language and image, that of myth, esoteric knowledge, and the concept of memory.

Coming to understand the meaning of the word exile, from a holistical stance, expressed emotionally, physically and psychologically, I find family identity as such—at large and conceptually, belonging to the ‘Inner-Exile’ in connotation with a certain sense of estrangement, being the result of the ‘migrated identity’ or identity-in-flux.

It is in this realm of ‘estrangement’, or bereavement of a sense of belonging, where re-appropriation of testimony and memory, both physically and verbally, are performed through an embodiment of the innate experience of the past and that of an imaginary reality. Be that experience of imaginative memory personal, or collective—set within the greater context of geo-political, and multi-directional history, its perpetual existence resonates within the actual political and public realm.

An introduction

Through generations, our memory awakens through dreams and visions, so it becomes remembered anew. Lives disrupted by the consequences of war, a landscape of sudden ruins emerges to the point of scorched earth. Intrigued by the idea of ruins, and ‘the blinded gaze’, what impact does such a history have on one’s perception, and how are these traces transcended on one’s psyche?

With the landscape as protagonist and beholder of a promise, of transformative force, being uprooted, one carries the burden of a sense of loss and separation, missing the nearness of loved ones. Nature is part of who we are, and so is the landscape imprinted in our memory encompassing our sense of self, an ‘omphalos’—sacred point of innate reference.

The earth—our landscape— an open scar of struggle and resilience, with the Tree of Life as a powerful symbol of life’s mystery and our interconnectedness with the cosmos, resonates a powerful mystic presence—through times of upheaval, enabling us our ‘sight’, blinded as we’ve become, we are offered to gaze anew into our souls.

Portal of the living membrane of remembrance, echoing Simone Weil’s philosophy marked by her understanding of paradox—emphasizing the tension between the material world and the divine, honoring our deepest connection with the land where we were born—into this world, wherefrom our sense of belonging stems.

 

Separation and Reunion

1948-1961 

In March 1948, during the Greek Civil War, upon bombarding the Prisoo Valley—home to an ethnic Slav minority—and the family’s natal village German, an ‘Exodus of Children’ took place (app. 30.000), known as “Decata Begalci”—Refugee Children of Aegean Macedonia.

Stoja, my grandmother, confided her three daughters to an aunt—to keep them safe—and together, whilst her husband Boris was mobilized after the Truman Doctrine in 1947—as a partisan, and embedded with the Greek Democratic Army (DSE).

My grandparents’ natal villages were situated near lake Prespa in the mountainous Florina region of western Greek Macedonia where—at the height of the second communist rebellion, the war ended on Oct. 16, 1949, clearing rebel centers from their outposts by brutal force. Separation caused by war, would inflict trauma of lifelong impact, being uprooted and forced to live apart from one another for a decade, spread throughout post-communist Europe.

The hazardous exilic journey by foot, initially separated the three sisters (3,6 and 12) not only from their parents, as well as from one another, up until their reunion five years later in the Czech-Republic (of the eldest sisters) with their parents, who had fled via Albania to Poland (where their son was born), whereas my mother remained in Macedonian orphanages for another five years, amounting her separation from the family to a mere decade.

In 1961 the family migrated to Skopje (now North-Macedonia), to never return to their homeland, disowned, and cut off from their natal soil since their exile in the year 1948, remained scattered and fragmented until present, thereof resonating with the experience of so many, at present. That makes this story a universal, and a timely story.

1995-2019

From 2000 onwards, and since its inception in 1995, ‘Exile: Belonging’ has come to fruition during a span of 23 years. When in 2001, amongst other incited by the Balkan Wars, the eldest sister, Cena, and her husband (Tanas) remigrated to the Czech Republic with their son Anastas and his second spouse with their children, to reunite with the oldest son (Kole).

If it were a repetitive dream, it felt as living amidst a reality that seemed a scenario as backdrop of a lamenting inner-landscape, a whispering acoustic of an unrelenting stream of people and stories, sighing under the weight of recurrent war, and separation. I followed their trail, and accompanied them on their journey, whereby she and her sister once had travelled back in 1948.

Based on oral history, debuting during my MFA-study (2011-13) at HEAD-Geneva—and since, a renewal and continuation of the project took form, exploring the vocabulary of my documentary practice, enabling to experiment intuitively with other forms of expression, complementary to that of photography.

A (vision) quest

Entailing a rich tapestry of works , by which exploring the vocabulary of a documentary practice, resulting in photographic essays, audio-visual works, prose, performances, a short film premiering in 2018 ‘Sweet Terror of Memory – ψίθυροι’ (15’, 2013-18), and a book dummy collecting 27 poems, ‘Poems for A Scenario’, of poetry combined with verbatim, as a basis of the film’s scenario. The experimental filmic poem had its initial try-out, a first version screened at Cinéma Spoutnik in Geneva (2013), with a live introduction, and all three actresses live-performing their voice-over.

‘Wander’, ‘13 Women–December’, ‘Journey’, and ‘The Visionary’ (2011-13), all combine prose with archival imagery, and ‘Caged Birds of Paradise’ (2014) was a newly added photographic essay, and ‘Pas De Deux’ (2012), would be decisive as a documented journey of three weeks, when my mother, Veselinka, and I visited the homeland in Greek Macedonia, in preparation of the film ‘Sweet Terror of Memory – ψίθυροι’.

Upon returning to my mother’s natal village German, presently named Agios Germanos, it was then and there whilst gazing at what was once the family’s house, standing eye-in-eye with the homeland as we entered into a ‘memory-image’: hovering between experienced time, memory and space.

Language: an envisioned reality / a fiction of reality

My Macedonian mother could only rely upon the memory of her sisters, and of her impressions while growing up in Macedonia’s orphanages (North-Macedonia), consequently relocated since being a toddler, until her reunion with the family a decade later, then adolescent. To the existentialist question of “Who am I”, she never could find an answer true, mirrored by her parents’ gaze. She had to reconstruct, or rather invent an identity based upon what was told, by her parents, and siblings, once they were reunited.

Throughout her adult life, she corresponded with both sisters, and through their writing she received a many written testimonials, as a result of their physical separation since she had left to Skopje with her parens and brother, whereafter she had to leave once again at the age of twenty, working as a seamstress in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, to finally touch base in Amsterdam with my father, Ernst.

Her identity could be seen as being built from ‘mental ruins’—voids of memory, since there wasn’t a real image to fabricate in connotation with a sense of belonging, as she was too young at the moment of her separation, leaving her homeland to live in exile.

This concept of a ‘mental ruin’ is an image of ‘intrigue’, where nothing seems fixed though rather fluid, distorting the perception of reality. An indulging concatenation of imagination, and parallel universes found, digging up symbolic language. Regarding the latter Aby Warburg writes: « [..] les images de la mémoire sont entassés consciemment sous forme d’images ou de signes [..] que l’on peut désigner comme une forme de pensée symbolique¹ ».

‘Wander’ is a poetic text, based upon my mother’s biography growing up in orphanages in Macedonia during the fifties of the 20th century and living and working as a seamstress from 1967 in Wilhelmshaven (Germany). ‘13 Women, December’  is the story of 13 women from North-Macedonia, some of them already friends, who would bond for a lifetime, all transported by train to work  as seamstresses—in exile, at BAWI, a textile factory in Wilhelmshaven. All, but one of them, as was predicted by a Gypsy man—referred to in ‘The Visionary’, would never return to resettle in their homeland again. Written and directed by Ilse Frech, performed by Leili Yahr, theatre actress and play-director (Geneva, Switzerland).

Until March 1948, during the Greek Civil War, the family had lived in German, situated in the ‘Prisoo Valley’ of what was then Aegean Macedonia, a mountainous region of today’s western Greek Macedonia. The family belonged to an ethnic minority of Slav Macedonians, living just across the border with then Yugoslavia, today North-Macedonia. My grandmother, Stoja, was born in Nivice, a neighbouring village at the top of the slope overlooking lake Prespa and the Prisoo Valley. As soon as she decided to marry, she moved to live with her husband-to-be, my grandfather, Boris.

The eldest daughter, Poli-Cena (my aunt) provided an oral- and written account of the moment of separation in German, Aegean Macedonia, 1948 (Epilogue). The chapters of her letter were entitled: “Separation” and “Reunion”.

It was winter still, as they left by foot, passing through the mountains. They would cross the border with many others, known as ‘DECATA BEGALCI’, the exodus of Greek children, generating at least 55.881 political exiles – and many more hereafter, of which the exodus of the Greek children in 1948. The Red Cross was responsible organizing transport for these children, by bus and train, to many of the neighbouring communist countries.

The family portrait (projectpage – desktop version) of Exile: Belonging, dates from 1953, Brno, Czecho-Slovakia where they had their picture taken just after the reunion, whereas the family members are clearly older in this photograph.

 

Project Overview

Debuting at the MFA HES-SO Contemporary Artistic Practices – WORK.MASTER programme (2011-2013) at HEAD-Geneva University of Arts and Design Switzerland, and since, Ilse Frech produced a collection of works, that altogether form ‘Exile: Belonging’, In Search of the Homeland.

‘Sweet Terror of Memory – ψίθυροι’ (15’, 2013-18), a short experimental filmic poem, based on the families’ stories, in alliance with research and archival footage of The Greek Civil War, personally associated with the familyhistory; ‘Poems for A Scenario’, an assemblage of 27 poems ‘Chaos in Eden: Seraphim and Daimon: Unison’ (2011-13), echoing the film’s narrative construct, and forming the basis for the voice-over inspired by interviews accounting the stories of female heroins, both survivors and victims of The Greek Civil War, child refugees as well as recounts by survivors of the Holocaust, the latter eyewitnesses having seen trains arriving with women and children from Macedonia, Greece.

Several videoworks are based on oral history, translated into prose i.e. ‘Wander’ (audio-narrated), ‘13 Women–December’, ‘Journey’ and ‘The Visionary’ (2011-13), were written through interviews with the three sisters, and using the photographic family archive; ‘Pas De Deux’ (2012) is a recount of the journey with my mother Veselinka visiting the homeland, and natal village Agios Germanos/German, in Greek Macedonia, after 64 years of absence. ‘Words of Memory/Paroles de Mémoire’ (2013), was an on-site two-person performance held in Germany as well as in Switzerland, reading eyewitness-accounts by female Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, living in exile, as part of the MFA Work.Master Study programme. Last but not least, ‘Caged Birds of Paradise’ (2014), was a newly added photo-essayistic chapter to the ongoing project. 

Works presented on-site (HEAD-Geneva):

Journey (1’21, 2011) Video, Archive photographs from the family archive in a rythmic combination with soundscape of sewing-machine (live performed); referring to my mothers’ past when she worked as a seamstress for about a year and a half for a textile company, BAWI, sewing back-pockets on men’s trousers. Photographs from the family-album made by my father, Ernst, accompany a soundscape depicting several journeys, seemingly going nowhere. As my parents had met in Germany, in the city of Wilhelmshaven, I’d decided to weave this narrative thread into the greater part of the project.

13 Women, December (2’53, 2012) Narrated slideshow-projection of prose; based on interviews with my mother, and her co–workers resulting in a poetic recollection of their journey leaving their homeland Macedonia, in order to work in a German textile-factory. Voice-over performed by Leili Yahr (theatre actress and play-director, Geneva), preceded by Wilhelmshaven (11’50, 2012), Video, Research-based interview with former co-workers, and friends at BAWI

‘Wander’ and ‘13 Women, December’ (2012-13) Audio visual narrations; both voice-over performances by Leili Yahr (theatre actress and play-director, Geneva)

Riso prints (2011-2012); Assemblage of texts, archival video-footage, collage of found photographs from web-based sources, and photographs from the family-album. Visualised in prints, part of the research for a publication of the project.

Crying (3’33, 2012) 3-Channel video-projection in red, green and blue, surround-sound installation (5 channels); A poem based on non-fiction elements,  visualized through 3 close-up images of an eye, altogether projected over a length of 9 meters on one wall, layered in projection, resulting in an overlap as if it were one image (mixing RGB)

Trousers (2012) A sculptural installation; research, in its first phase, to a more tactile and spatial approach, creating an immersive spatial installation

Hellfire, Blank – Hiroshima mon Amour, Where are’t thou (2012) An audio-visual installation of three poems; dispersed by a small speaker with an mp3 player attached to an installation in the studio. The sound was distorted, as if listening to a radio-frequency, presented with pictures of my mother, and other female members of the family.

Words of Memory / Paroles de Mémoire (2012) Performance and audiorecordings of Holocaust survivors, eye-witnesses’ accounts of exiles of WW-II; verbatim of interviews of several Jewish women. Source and copyrights of the interviews belong to the USC Shoah Foundation, researched and archived by die Freie Universität, Berlin.