itourist?

Produced by Paul Antick, itourist? is a multi-media project that uses billboard art, writing and the internet to pose a series of questions about the relationship between the Holocaust, Jewish identities and mass tourism in the 21st century. The above image is a recent mock-up of one of fourteen different billboards that will appear in the UK and Czech Republic during December 2006.

itourist? is being developed in collaboration with John Hansard Gallery and is supported by Middlesex University, Center for Contemporary Art Prague, Parkes Institute for Jewish / non-Jewish Relations (University of Southampton) and Museum of Domestic Art and Architecture (MoDA, Middlesex University).

Click here for current BBC coverage of itourist?

itourist? consists of several research strands:

itourist? billboards In December 2006 fourteen 10×20ft billboards – produced by Paul Antick and Syd Shelton – will be simultaneously erected in Southampton, North London and between Prague and Terezin, Czech Republic (formerly Theresienstadt concentration camp). These will remain in situ for between two weeks and a month. Click here for more information.

itourist? symposium – Journeys through the Holocaust To coincide with the billboard project this one day symposium, hosted by John Hansard Gallery on December 11th, will address some of the issues raised by the campaign. Click here for more information and visit The Dark Tourism Forum to download a symposium flyer.

itourist? blog Please blog back any thoughts or ideas you might have about the billboards or any of the other material posted on this site. You can do so by first, going to ‘Sign-up’ (on the left, top of the page) and entering in some basic details. Then go to ‘Log-in’, enter your chosen web name and password, and once you’ve done this simply go to the blog page and click on the blog number that you wish to respond to. Click here to access the blog page or go to the site index (on the left, under ‘Current Project’) and click on ‘Blog’.

itourist? lecture= On December 6th I will be talking about the project at the Museum of Domestic Art and Architecture (MoDA). Click here for more information.

itourist? publication: In September 2007 an itourist? publication will be available.

About this Website

This website, with accompanying blogging facility, will form an important, constitutive part of the project. Functioning like a digital notebook, I am hoping that it will further enable me to work out various thoughts and ideas regarding itourist?. It will also provide visitors with the opportunity to post their own thoughts about the project. There are various sections on the website, each of which can be easily accessed by going to the chapter index (under ‘Current Project’) on the left hand side of this page. Simply click on the chapter heading you’re interested in.

Billboards, as you might expect, contains mock-up images of the billboards that will be posted up on the streets of London, Prague and Southampton this December.

Image / Text contains extracts from an essay on Holocaust tourism and Jewish subjectivities that I’m currently developing for (ed.) Anthony Kiendl Informal Architectures (Banff Press, Alberta, 2007), as well as other related visual and written materials.

Bibliography contains references to – and comments upon – an eclectic range of materials that in one way or another continue to inform my thoughts about this project.

Symposium offers further information about Journeys through the Holocaust.

Blog allows visitors the chance to blog back their thoughts and feelings about itourist?

Image Bank is simply an archive of images that I draw from when building this site.

Profile contains information about some recent projects that I’ve been involved with.

All Projects The itourist? site is part of Middlesex University’s Visual Culture Research Website. All of the titles listed under ‘All Projects’ contain work which is being developed by other researchers in Visual Culture and Media at Middlesex. They are not part of itourist?

Remember, anything highlighted in blue is a hot link. Click on it and you’ll be referred to another part of the site – or to another site altogether. Some of the images are hot too!