Programme of the Synagogue

 

Jewish cemetery in Rožna Dolina

Photography exhibition

6. - 30. September 2020

The photographic exhibition Jewish Cemetery in Rožna Dolina, by photographer Andrej Perko, will be on display from 6. September 2020. The exhibition is also part of the Maribor Photography Festival 2020, organized by the Photo Club of Maribor.

“At the Jewish cemetery in Rožna dolina near Gorica, which I visited for a few gloomy December days, I was especially aware of the passing and death.
The abandoned tombstones bear witness to the final disappearance of the entire, once vibrant Jewish community, which ceased to exist in the autumn of 1943, after centuries of existance in Gorizia. It was swallowed up by the Nazi rice mill and eventually by the Auschwitz crematorium.
I additionally equipped the cycle of photographs of the cemetery with the remains of tombstones with images of people who lived in the same period as the last Jewish inhabitants of Gorizia, but had nothing to do with them except the time frame. I took photos of my ancestors from the album and presented them in the form of negatives, as I wanted to further emphasize the common, immaterial presence of the deceased.”

Andrej Perko, author of photographs

Andrej Perko was born in 1946 in Ljubljana, he completed Grammar School in Novo mesto, graduated at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FME) and later studied at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education – specialising in fine art. He has dedicated himself primarily, but not exclusively, to black and white analogue photography and old photographic techniques. Through the years of engagement with the media he has frequently presented his photographic work at personal and group exhibitions home and abroad. His work is present in several collections, he has also published several photographic books. He is a member of The Northern Primorska Fine Artists Association (DLUSP), The Slovenian Association of Fine Arts Societies (ZDSLU) and Cabinet of Slovenian Photography. Andrej Perko lives and works in Vipavski Križ.