The belief in beauty behind barbed wire

Art in the camp - Gurs (1939 - 1945)
A memoir in texts and music

Many famous artists were interned in Gurs, the largest internment camp in southern France, between 1939 and 1944. Despite the miserable living conditions, they tried to overcome the suffering and fear through their art and thus preserve their human dignity. Renowned musicians gave first-class concerts in the camp and organized cabaret evenings to give their fellow prisoners, including the first Jews deported there in October 1940 from Baden, the Palatinate and Saarland, a moment of happiness and to be together in an oasis of hope.

The Franco-German musician Mélina Burlaud spent several years researching the traces of the musicians interned in Gurs and collecting their texts and music from the camp period. Together with mezzo-soprano Lena Spohn, she will perform a hauntingly moving concert. The fate of the inmates is made clear through musical performances of works composed in the camp and also by describing the reality of the camp with selected texts. It pays homage to the power of art as an escape to inner freedom. An evening that shows us once again how important the role of art has always been as a force of resistance and a life-saver.