translation

A niece of my granny still reads Sütterlin. She translated many letters & postcards which my great grandmother (who lived in Vienna) wrote to my grandmother (who lived from her 11th age on in the Netherlands).

Sütterlinschrift (Sütterlin script), or Sütterlin for short, is the last widely used form of the old German blackletter handwriting (Deutsche Kurrentschrift). In Germany, the old German cursive script developed in the 16th century replacing the Gothic handwriting at the same time that bookletters developed into the Fraktur typeface. Some people refer to all old German handwriting scripts as Sütterlin, although variants of the Kurrent script were in use centuries before graphic artist Ludwig Sütterlin (1865–1917) was born. The word Sütterlin is nowadays often used to refer to all varieties of Old German handwriting although this specific script was only taught in German schools from 1935 to 1941.

with the train through Niederösterreich

First to Wiener Neustadt where I was picked up to go to Neunkirchen for an impression and meeting in an exhibition space in Neunkirchen.
Afterwards to the little village Ramplach. My austrian "family" lives there.

going through a pile of photograph's finding this....

Archive

Finally I got Filemaker up and running on my computer, so I can start to build the archive of all the documents, photographs and postcards of my grandmothers legacy.

To start with the postcards.

view Vienna

@ fotok

Bleyer

A first research on the Bleyer family has brought an encounter with a 75 year old man from the Bleyer dynasty. Looking for a Bleyer/Bleier/Pleijer family in the cemetery in Landsee gave me immediately an impuls. I found the grave of Stefan and Elisabeth Bleyer. People on the street could (coincidently?) show me the house of their son, Friedrich Bleyer.
The man was home and happy to talk to me about his ancestors. Altough it's still a bit in the dark if his family is connected to mine, it was a really nice encounter. To be continued...

the first days in Austria

After a 13 hour drive (my boyfriend drove me all the way!) we arrived in a beautiful appartment in the district Hernals, Vienna. On the fourth floor I have a marvellous view on all the green which surrounds this area. On sunday we drove to my family in Ramplach, about an hour from Vienna.
On monday I started my search for the Bleyer-family (my grandmothers familyname). Led by the information I already had, we drove from Ramplach to Wiesmath. I wanted to track down the birthcertificate of my great grandmother. She is born in Beistein, a tiny village. I had to go to the village Wiesmath to speak to the priest. He can provide me access to the birthcertificates of the people who have been born in Beistein. Unfortunately the priest was on holiday. In august I'll come back in Wiesmath to talk to him.

A short movie of the surroundings were my great grandmother was born: Beistein, Austria

'ABSCHIED TUT WEH' (it hurts to say goodbye)

This is the (work)title of the photoproject I will make during the three months as an artist in residence at photo institution fotoK.

Below here you find background information about the project.

My grandmother came to the Netherlands after WWI, at the age of eleven. Due to varying circumstances she did not see her mother, who lived in Vienna, for years. The first and last time she saw her mother was in 1952, on her first holiday to Austria. In 2000 my grandmother passed away. By studying and questioning her inheritance I want to make a a visual interpretation of these events, in order to make certain choices visible that were made by her. I have already completed research for different parts of the present project. For example, I have my grandparents’ documents from before WWII until 1952, as well as postcards and letters sent by family in Vienna to Holland between 1922 and 1945. Furthermore, I found birth certificates and other documents which lead back to six generations earlier. Interviews with my Austrian family have given me insight into the personal business and lives of my grandmother and great-grandmother.