Ben Wood is devoted to exploring site-based history, and telling history in public space through new media, video and projected art for the general public. He connects people with site and history through site-based projection art.
Visual artist Ben Wood will discuss his family’s Stolperstein journey, which took place in March 2024, during which they visited Berlin and nearby towns Seelow and Strausberg to lay Stolpersteine for his grandparents’ families who were victims of the Holocaust.
tIn collaboration with the University of Potsdam Brandenburg Jewish Cemetery Project and Dr. Anke Geißler-Grunberg, I have recently published the first comprehensive history of the destroyed Jewish Cemetery of Seelow. The cemetery is where my great grandfather and great great grandparents are buried. During World War II, it was desecrated and destroyed and later was turned into a car park, which it remained for 60+ years. Last year, upon my family visiting the town, the asphalt was removed and it is now overgrowing unused area.
My hope is that this article along with my visual proposals can serve as further evidence to support creating a place of remembrance for my ancestors who are buried there. The town is currently seeking funds to carry out the project and I am hoping this will be a catalyst for the long overdue restoration.
Article in English
A History of the Disappeared Jewish Cemetery and Community of Seelow
Article in German
Geschichte des Jüdischen Friedhofs in Seelow
Geschichte der Juden in Seelow
I am delighted to be part of this book, Interrogative Design, by Ian Wojtowicz. The book is an in depth compendium featuring the work of Krzysztof Wodiczko, his students and artistic colleagues. With rich essays and project examples the book focuses on Wodiczko's, interrogative design approach which focuses on activating the public sphere and enriching public discourse through the production of questions. My contribution is an essay proposing to animate the and interrogate, the Life of Washington Murals in San Francisco.
My great-grandfather and great-great grandparents and other ancestors have been buried in a Jewish Cemetery in Germany since the 1800s. During the Nazi period the cemetery was desecrated and in World War Two it was destroyed and later paved over as a parking lot, which it has remained for over 60 years. I am recovering the history of the cemetery and I am working on a proposal with the town to create a memorial and return the paved over cemetery as a memorial park.
A short dreamlike tour, reimagines and visually explores 73 Gross Strasse, the former house of my Great-Great Grandparents, that was confiscated by the Gestapo in 1939, and demolished in 1940. During the past year I have been recovering this lost family story and have recreated their house and Textile Shop in Strausberg, Germany, as a 3D model and animation, an artistic process of cultural recovery and repair.
Over the past year I have been engaged in the process of researching and applying for my great-grandfathers and other ancestors who were victims of the Holocaust. In March 2024, I will be visiting Berlin and suburbs Strausberg, and Seelow, the home towns of my grandparents to lay Stolperstein for my great-grandparents.
Tucked beneath the Golden Gate Bridge is the slightly less famous musty brick fortress of Fort Point, an 1861 edifice built to guard the bustling gold region from foreign invaders and marauders. Visitors to the area mainly train their cameras on the bridge—and not the fort-turned-national Park. Joe Rosato Jr. reports how one man is trying to bring more attention to the fort's history.
Ben Wood, A Bastion of Memory, Announcement
I was thrilled and honored to participate in a panel "Art Activating Historic Places", with Cheryl Haines of the FOR-SITE Foundation and Frank Smigiel, Director of Arts and Programming at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.
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