Folding Memory: The Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust and the Commemoration of the Shoah

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay proposes an analysis of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH) as a new mode of Holocaust commemoration by architecture. The main claim of the essay is that LAMOTH proposes, an alternative to postmodernist and deconstructivist modes of Holocaust commemoration in architecture. In order to show and elaborate on this new mode of commemoration, the essay briefly outlines the history of the LAMOTH's an organization and analyzes its previous locations. It also demonstrates that LAMOTH current location and building’s design stems from ideas about fluidity, continuity and the fold, particularly the ways in which the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze defined those concepts. Finally, the essay discusses the significance of Holocaust commemoration that emerges from this type of architecture.