Primo Levy: Lo sono un centauro
By Mariana Hristova
Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and a nazi concentration camp survivor, Primo Levy is best known for the works he devoted to giving a testimony about the Holocaust. On the 35th anniversary of his death and commemorating the 75 years of the publication of his most famous book If This Is a Man, El Born CCM exhibits a collection of personal portraits and fragments from his literary legacy with the intention to reflect on humans' need to bear witness to history.
Levy’s work helps audiences to access the way testimony is constructed throughout the life journey, the paradoxes, and difficulties in conveying experience in both times and in different generations. Furthermore, his profession as a chemist plays a very important role in Levi’s life and his survival. His profession was beneficial to him within the structure of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp and also when it came to applying a scientist’s tools: the distance that makes observation possible and later, through writing, reflection, and analysis.
The Lo sono un centauro… (I am a Centaur) installation aims to Levy known for his multi-faceted role as a witness, fiction writer, and chemist, focusing particularly on his international validity. The artwork consists of five multi-dimensional photographs of Primo Levi and five short texts extracted from his other important book The Periodic Table along with an interview that hangs from the central part of the El Born CCM’s ceiling. Besides, a diverse program of concerts, recitals, conferences, projections, and round-table discussions with experts will be held in tribute to the author.