The AesthEt(h)ics of the Fragment. Jewish Memories and Co-Creative Mapping Practices

This chapter discusses the use of the fragment as ethical and aesthetic practice in working with difficult memories. The idea of an »AesthEt(h)ics of the fragment« is elaborated, drawing inspiration from two artistic practices: an exhibition dedicated to the 1938 census of the Jews in Milan, Italy, and a short documentary film of objects that survived their owners who drowned in the Mediterranean. Framed by Rothberg’s conceptualization of memory as »multidirectional« and in recent shifts in map studies, the chapter illustrates some examples of creative maps produced in the context of research-creation practices. These creative maps chart the stories of the interviewees’ as well as the position of the researcher in relation to them. The chapter is complemented by two visual essays that allow the reader to experience an »immersive form of knowing« and to grasp both the magnitude of the (tragic) events and the unique fragments that constitute them.