October 7, 2010 Mirta Kupferminc to Screen and Discuss Award-Winning Video, "The Name and the Number," Oct. 26

In her award-winning video “The Name and the Number,” Argentinean artist Mirta Kupferminc compares the numbered tattoos made in Auschwitz with ornamental tattoos that are popular today.

Kupferminc, the daughter of Auschwitz survivors, will screen the video and talk about her work at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 26, at the Library of Congress in the European Division Conference Room on the second floor of Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.

Sponsored by the Library’s European Division, with cooperation of the Embassy of Hungary, the event is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are needed.

“The Name and the Number” compares decorative tattoos inscribed voluntarily today with others done in Auschwitz, which were intended to degrade and identify Jews. She explores the tattoos of her Hungarian-born mother and Polish-born father as the ultimate dehumanizing act, and honors their defiance in retaining them as a testament against the obliteration of history.

Kupferminc, an established and well-respected artist from Buenos Aires, has exhibited in more than 50 individual shows around the world. Much of her work explores the link between the culture of European immigrants and their newly found home in the Americas. Through her work, she raises the question of identity and heritage. Her work is both a testimony of pain and a celebration of life.

The European Division is responsible for providing reference and for developing the Library’s collections relating to continental Europe except for Iberia. Its European Reading Room should be the starting point for readers whose interests concern European countries other than Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, and Ireland. For more information on the European Division’s resources and services, visit www.loc.gov/rr/european/.

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