During the Second World War, artist Stephanie Claes’ grandmother was deported and imprisoned at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. The months of cold, hunger, and brutality left lasting marks not only on her life, but on her daughter’s and granddaughter’s too, the latter sometimes dreaming of soldiers entering her street and forcing her to flee.
Through her own drawings and archival footage, Claes speaks of inherited trauma, tracing how certain events cast shadows across generations long after they end. In her own intimate, deeply visual way, and without speaking a single word, the artist gives form to a silent grief that has travelled through three generations of women – and to how, finally, it was laid to rest.