A child pointing his toy gun at his teddy bear. A naked woman on a couch with a similar toy. A German soldier in a trench cuddling his Ttddy bear. The world is full of Teddy bears and their small but reassuring warmth. We all need a teddy bear of some sort. There was an exhibition of photos of people and their teddy bears entitled “Partners (The Teddy Bear Project) in Munich in late 2003. The Canadian artist Ydessa Hendele hung them from ceiling to wall and in cases -- thousands of pictures from the innocent to vulgar and the funny to the grim.
At the end of the exhibition is one last room. It at first seems to be an empty room with just white walls. And then you notice a man kneeling in the middle of the floor, facing away from you. You go around to see what he is doing. It is a lifelike statue of Hitler, and it is then that it hits you: the show wasn’t about teddy bears at all. The exhibition was titled “Partners” because it was about the Jewish people and the German People before WW II. Looking around, the only way out is the way you came in. You return past all the photos you have just been smiling and pointing and chuckling at. They are now grim and frightening. The innocence is completely gone. Who were the soldiers, their families and kids and who are children of the gas chamber? With nothing but a teddy bear and a smile it is impossible to tell -- and that is a very unsettling glimpse into the playtime at the house of good and evil.
“Ydessa, The Bears and Ect” a film by Agnes Varda, French 2004
At the end of the exhibition is one last room. It at first seems to be an empty room with just white walls. And then you notice a man kneeling in the middle of the floor, facing away from you. You go around to see what he is doing. It is a lifelike statue of Hitler, and it is then that it hits you: the show wasn’t about teddy bears at all. The exhibition was titled “Partners” because it was about the Jewish people and the German People before WW II. Looking around, the only way out is the way you came in. You return past all the photos you have just been smiling and pointing and chuckling at. They are now grim and frightening. The innocence is completely gone. Who were the soldiers, their families and kids and who are children of the gas chamber? With nothing but a teddy bear and a smile it is impossible to tell -- and that is a very unsettling glimpse into the playtime at the house of good and evil.
“Ydessa, The Bears and Ect” a film by Agnes Varda, French 2004
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