Sousa Mendes Video Sculpture Unveiled
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April 21, 2021. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Aristides de Sousa Mendes: o Exílio pela Vida (Escape to Life) is a touring exhibition opening at Portugal’s new National Resistance and Freedom Museum on the occasion of the celebrations of the Day of Liberty, a national holiday of Portugal commemorating the April 25 Carnation Revolution. The exhibition comes to Portugal as a partnership between Portugal’s Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage, the US-based Sousa Mendes Foundation, and the Comité français Sousa Mendes based in Bordeaux, France.
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The opening of the exhibition is by invitation only and will be held on April 25, 2021, the anniversary of the Revolution. The exhibition then opens to the general public on April 27, 2021 in commemoration of the date in 1974 when the political prisoners were liberated from the old jail in the Peniche Fortress. It can be visited from Wednesday to Friday from 2 pm to 6 pm, on Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 1 pm, until October 31, 2021. The address of the museum is Campo da República 609, 2520-607 Peniche, Portugal, and admission is free.
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The centerpiece of the exhibition is the newly completed Sousa Mendes Video Sculpture by artist Werner Klotz commissioned by the Sousa Mendes Foundation and made possible by over seventy individual donors and foundations. The large contemporary work interprets the mindset of Aristides de Sousa Mendes in the days leading up to his decision that would save thousands of lives from the Nazi terror. It is based on an idea of Sebastian Mendes, grandson of Sousa Mendes, who was an artist. “My cousin Sebastian had a very warm personality and he dreamed of creating this sculpture in homage to his grandfather and to those saved. I think Sebastian would be very proud of the result” recalls Gérald Mendes, another grandson of Sousa Mendes. The project team, that was instrumental in the realization of the video sculpture, includes Jennifer Hartog, Monique Rubens Krohn, Gérald Mendes and Leah Rozenfeld Sills.
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The exhibition at the Peniche museum in Portugal is the official unveiling of the chandelier-shaped sculpture, which will then tour to other sites worldwide. “We were very moved when the Chandelier was set up on Friday, and the space was transformed into a small cathedral,” said Teresa Pacheco Albino, Coordinator of the Museu Nacional de Resistência e Liberdade. “It is a beautiful piece that conveys a message of love.”
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In 1940, Sousa Mendes, facing the despair of refugees fleeing the advance of German troops, decided to act according to his conscience and values, disobeying the orders he had received from the Salazar government by signing thousands of visas for Portugal. This gesture led to his becoming an outcast in his own country — fired and blacklisted by the regime. The Sousa Mendes exhibition is in line with the mission of the Peniche site as a Museum of Memory, aimed at disseminating the values and principles of citizenship, human rights and freedom.
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Sousa Mendes was posthumously recognized in 1966 as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem. Recognition followed in the United States, and eventually in Portugal as well. In 1987 then-President of Portugal Mario Soares honored Sousa Mendes and apologized on behalf of the Portuguese government to the Sousa Mendes family. On April 3, 2017, the anniversary of the hero’s death, the current President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa attributed to Aristides de Sousa Mendes the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty. More recently, in June of 2020, the Portuguese Parliament voted unanimously to induct Sousa Mendes into the National Pantheon.
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Founded in 2010, the Sousa Mendes Foundation is devoted to honoring the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and to educating the public about his action. It has a two-fold mission: raising funds for the restoration of the Casa do Passal and the creation within its walls of a museum and memorial site; and sponsoring US-based projects that perpetuate his legacy.
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For more information on the Sousa Mendes video sculpture, click here.
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