The video „Shoe Test #2“ explores a forced, day long march of 40 kilometres based on the testimonies of George Saxon’s father, who was subjected to the ’shoe testing track‘ as part of a punishment unit at Sachsenhausen.
Shoe Test #2 is the prelude and preparation to the walk/run on the ’shoe test‘ track, where a series of actions are interspersed with cynical texts (attributed to Heinrich Himmler) which allude to the notion of moral excellence, conformity and conduct. The resulting moving image based work reveals the interpretive ‚re-enactment‘ of humiliation and submission. The track was designed cynically to examine the durability of various types of materials for military footwear. George Saxon’s father was forced to carry a pack of bricks, 30 kilos in weight for the duration of this interminable trudge.
The project aims to critically examine the ‚Shoe Test Track‘ within Sachsenhausen as a primary site of exploration, whilst also considering other secondary locations, such as the roll call area and barracks where prisoners were located. In response, the project proposes a series of temporal works (a series of interpretive acts) to be explored through durational performances, audience/community involvement and moving image works to be located on the site at Sachsenhausen. These proposed works attempt to piece together the complex nature of generational experience, memories and inherited trauma, including wider familial relations within the interpretation and understanding of history.
Also, within this proposal exists a live relocation of ‚interpretive‘ works that endeavour to confront the problematic manifestations of such locations; sites of horror, museums, and even our own morbid fascination with such topics. How do I as the child of a survivor continue to remember, translate and begin the process of ‚liberation‘, through the ritual re-visiting of this site and its narratives; current manifestations of memory, the wider interpretive translation of inter-generational trauma and its potential legacy for future generations?
Shoe Test #2 is part of a larger body of proposed work that uses moving image, text, duration and performance, to explore extreme endurance of forced labour at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The video was first screened in 2011 as part of the Coventry Peace Festival (alongside two other artists, Adrian Palka and Tom Williams).
Author
George Saxon
