Study for Strings Sokol Terezín is an intimate sound and video installation that takes the viewer back to the atrocities of the Second World War

The soundtrack consists of two isolated instruments - a cello and a viola - accompanied by two screens showing subtle footage of the corridors of the Theresienstadt concentration camp as they appear today.

The focal point of the work is the sound of two string instruments, originally part of the composition "Study for String Orchestra" written by the Czech-Jewish composer Pavel Haas (1899-1944). Susan Philipsz brings the tragic stories of Pavel Haas and millions of others into her work, where she uses sound fragments and video installations to show the horrors of that time in a contemporary context.

In the exhibition at ARoS, a camera moves through the buildings where Haas was imprisoned, and Philipsz thereby tries to create a feeling that the viewer is moving through the corridors like a ghost haunting the place it once lived. At the same time, the tones of the isolated instruments - the cello and the viola - fill the intimate work of art, giving the viewer a feeling of both being physically present in the room while being mentally surrounded and overwhelmed by memories, recollections and thoughts. With the work, Philipsz explores themes such as distance and separation, absence and loss, as well as the significance of past events in today's view of history.

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