2:00 P.M.EST
20:00 CET
20:00 CET
november
09
1-2. Z. Hertzberg, Mechitza. Individual and Collective Resistance of Women During the Shoah, installation view / spoken word performance 12th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 11.6.-18.9.2022, Photo: Z. Hertzberg, Przyjaciele MSN1. 2. Ilit Azoulay, Queendom,Panel 4, 2022, Installation view, La Biennale di Venezia, Israeli pavilion. Courtesy the Artist, Braverman Gallery. ©Jens Zieh.jpg. 3-4. Zsuzsi Flohr, "On the Ground, the Possibilities", video, 13’ 43’’, video stills.
For the first time in its 127-year history the Venice biennale almost entirely focused on non-male artists - The Milk of Dreams curated by Cecilia Alemani included 213 artists from 58 countries with 90% of the participants being women or gender non-conforming artists. This curatorial gesture not only shifts the gender paradigm of the previous biennale editions but also makes us rethink the gender imbalance of the art world that is traditionally male- and heteronormative-dominant. Bringing together artists of different generations, Alemani uses a transhistorical approach and bridges the present and the past to address the processes and transformations that are shaping our fragile future, and in doing so she relies on «forms of symbiosis, solidarity, and sisterhood».
The first edition of Yiddishland Pavilion also largely focuses on female and queer perspectives on Yiddish and Jewish narratives, experiences and perceptions that are often ignored or find themselves on the periphery of Jewish history due to their «uncomfortability» or «non-conformity». The discussion explores various artistic approaches to challenging narrative power structures and dominant visions of Jewish culture and history that are based on reappropriation of knowledge, restitution of minority heritage, and demarginalization of collective and individual memories and voices.
Artivist and researcher Zuzanna Hertzberg talks about her practice of recovering herstories of Jewish women fighters by bringing archives out into the streets, and into other accessible public spaces. Her performances include a spoken word component aiming to bring back and share these stories with the audience. Her art is the construction of a new archive accessible to all. It is a way of preserving testimony and recovering memory. It is also a story in which the artist connects the archival documents with the present of everyday activist practices, including the ones she participates in herself.
The talk includes a discussion of the work ”Individual and Collective Resistance of Women During the Shoah" Zuzanna did as part of the 12 Berlin Biennale. The talk will also concerns her new project she did as part of the 12 Berlin Biennale: an anti-hegemonic, anti-imperialist performative walk “Jewish Anarchist Women against Hegemony” followed by sharing stories about Jewish-Ukrainian women anarchists from the first half of the 20th century. The form and content of the banners link the past and present fight for the rights of women, minorities, refugees, and freedom in Ukraine. This is part of the cycle entitled „ZA-CZYN! (IGNITE!).”
Artist Ilit Azoulay speaks about her project that represents Israel at the 59th Venice Biennale. "Queendom" is a research-based project that explores alternatives to male-dominated, linear, and Eurocentric forms of knowledge transfer. Through panoramic photomontages, a sound work, and architectural interventions, the Queendom materializes. Azoulay opens pathways into an interconnected Middle East, where identities are fluid and complexities appreciated. She crops macro-photographic images from the archive of David Storm Rice (1913–1962), a scholar of Islamic medieval metal vessels, then digitally manipulates and rearranges them on scanned metal plates. In addition, she turns the building’s focus from West to East, transforming it into a space of shared histories and exposed cultural appropriations.
Artist Zsuzsi Flohr presents her new video work created for Yiddishland Pavilion. The imagined homeland for Roma people—from the 1930s—frames the video and provides a springboard for rhizomatic reflections on the roots and routes of Roma in Hungary, with a focus on poetry, painting, and songs. The video work, "On the ground, the Possibilities", is a continuation of an earlier project "How I Realized/How I Found Out", which was first exhibited in Budapest in the summer of 2021. "How I Realized/How I Found Out" deals with the commonalities and differences in concealing, rejecting, or embracing Jewish and Roma identity by members of the Third Generation after the Shoah/Pharrajimos. While researching my project for creating the video On the ground, the possibilities, I discovered that in the 1930s some Roma intellectuals drew inspiration from contemporary Zionist dreams of a Jewish state and envisioned a future, independent Roma homeland of their own. This video, "On the Ground, the Possibilities", uses her own artworks and research diary, along with television interviews and film
clips that Zsuzsi recorded from the computer screen with a digital camera, and then incorporated into a video collage as visual quotations.
This event is part of the discussion series "Yiddishland Pavilion at The James Gallery: Transnationality, Memory and Museology" organized in a collaboration between Yiddishland Pavilion and James Gallery. The discussions that touch upon the topics of (trans)national representation at the Venice biennale, integration of contemporary art into Jewish museums and artistic female voices that find alternative ways to be heard are held in a hybrid format: online and at James Gallery in October - November 2022.
James Gallery brings artists and scholars into public dialogue on topics of mutual concern through exhibitions as a form of advanced research. As a window into the research work of The Graduate Center and a hub of international discussion, The James Gallery is central to The Graduate Center’s and the City University of New York’s contribution to the cultural life of New York City. The gallery works with scholars, students, artists and the public to explore working methods that may lie outside usual disciplinary boundaries.
The James Gallery website
The James Gallery address
365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016
other events of the series:
October 12, 2022
Challenging the National Division: Transnational, Alternative, and “Pavilions-in-pavilions” at the Venice Biennale
October 26,2022
Jewish Museums and Contemporary Art: Preservation of Memory or Forging Futurity?
The first edition of Yiddishland Pavilion also largely focuses on female and queer perspectives on Yiddish and Jewish narratives, experiences and perceptions that are often ignored or find themselves on the periphery of Jewish history due to their «uncomfortability» or «non-conformity». The discussion explores various artistic approaches to challenging narrative power structures and dominant visions of Jewish culture and history that are based on reappropriation of knowledge, restitution of minority heritage, and demarginalization of collective and individual memories and voices.
Artivist and researcher Zuzanna Hertzberg talks about her practice of recovering herstories of Jewish women fighters by bringing archives out into the streets, and into other accessible public spaces. Her performances include a spoken word component aiming to bring back and share these stories with the audience. Her art is the construction of a new archive accessible to all. It is a way of preserving testimony and recovering memory. It is also a story in which the artist connects the archival documents with the present of everyday activist practices, including the ones she participates in herself.
The talk includes a discussion of the work ”Individual and Collective Resistance of Women During the Shoah" Zuzanna did as part of the 12 Berlin Biennale. The talk will also concerns her new project she did as part of the 12 Berlin Biennale: an anti-hegemonic, anti-imperialist performative walk “Jewish Anarchist Women against Hegemony” followed by sharing stories about Jewish-Ukrainian women anarchists from the first half of the 20th century. The form and content of the banners link the past and present fight for the rights of women, minorities, refugees, and freedom in Ukraine. This is part of the cycle entitled „ZA-CZYN! (IGNITE!).”
Artist Ilit Azoulay speaks about her project that represents Israel at the 59th Venice Biennale. "Queendom" is a research-based project that explores alternatives to male-dominated, linear, and Eurocentric forms of knowledge transfer. Through panoramic photomontages, a sound work, and architectural interventions, the Queendom materializes. Azoulay opens pathways into an interconnected Middle East, where identities are fluid and complexities appreciated. She crops macro-photographic images from the archive of David Storm Rice (1913–1962), a scholar of Islamic medieval metal vessels, then digitally manipulates and rearranges them on scanned metal plates. In addition, she turns the building’s focus from West to East, transforming it into a space of shared histories and exposed cultural appropriations.
Artist Zsuzsi Flohr presents her new video work created for Yiddishland Pavilion. The imagined homeland for Roma people—from the 1930s—frames the video and provides a springboard for rhizomatic reflections on the roots and routes of Roma in Hungary, with a focus on poetry, painting, and songs. The video work, "On the ground, the Possibilities", is a continuation of an earlier project "How I Realized/How I Found Out", which was first exhibited in Budapest in the summer of 2021. "How I Realized/How I Found Out" deals with the commonalities and differences in concealing, rejecting, or embracing Jewish and Roma identity by members of the Third Generation after the Shoah/Pharrajimos. While researching my project for creating the video On the ground, the possibilities, I discovered that in the 1930s some Roma intellectuals drew inspiration from contemporary Zionist dreams of a Jewish state and envisioned a future, independent Roma homeland of their own. This video, "On the Ground, the Possibilities", uses her own artworks and research diary, along with television interviews and film
clips that Zsuzsi recorded from the computer screen with a digital camera, and then incorporated into a video collage as visual quotations.
This event is part of the discussion series "Yiddishland Pavilion at The James Gallery: Transnationality, Memory and Museology" organized in a collaboration between Yiddishland Pavilion and James Gallery. The discussions that touch upon the topics of (trans)national representation at the Venice biennale, integration of contemporary art into Jewish museums and artistic female voices that find alternative ways to be heard are held in a hybrid format: online and at James Gallery in October - November 2022.
James Gallery brings artists and scholars into public dialogue on topics of mutual concern through exhibitions as a form of advanced research. As a window into the research work of The Graduate Center and a hub of international discussion, The James Gallery is central to The Graduate Center’s and the City University of New York’s contribution to the cultural life of New York City. The gallery works with scholars, students, artists and the public to explore working methods that may lie outside usual disciplinary boundaries.
The James Gallery website
The James Gallery address
365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016
other events of the series:
October 12, 2022
Challenging the National Division: Transnational, Alternative, and “Pavilions-in-pavilions” at the Venice Biennale
October 26,2022
Jewish Museums and Contemporary Art: Preservation of Memory or Forging Futurity?
Online-offline
discussion
discussion
THE JAMES GALLERY&ZOOM
hERSTORIES, UNCOMFORTABLE NARRATIVES, AND POWER ASYMMETRIES
Ilit Azoulay
Zsuzsi Flohr
Zuzanna Hertzberg
Zsuzsi Flohr
Zuzanna Hertzberg
מײַן רוע פּלאַץ
ניט זוך מיך ווו די מירטן גרינען.
געפנסט מיך דארטן ניט, מיין שאץ.
ווו לעבנס וועלקן ביי מאשינין,
דארטן איז מיין רוע-פלאץ.
ניט זוך מיך ווו די פייגל זינגען.
געפנסט מיך דארטן ניט, מיין שאץ.
א שקלאף בין איך, ווו קייטן קלינגען,
דארטן איז מיין רוע-פלאץ.
ניט זוך מיך ווו פענטאנען שפריצן.
געפנסט מיך דארטן ניט, מיין שאץ.
ווו טרערן רינען, ציינער קריצר,
דארטן איז מיין רוע-פלאץ.
און ליבסטו מעך מיט ווארער ליבע,
טא קום צו מיר מיין גואער שאץ.
און הייטער אויף מיין הארץ דאס טריבע.
און מעך מיר זיס מיין רוע-פלעץ.
ניט זוך מיך ווו די מירטן גרינען.
געפנסט מיך דארטן ניט, מיין שאץ.
ווו לעבנס וועלקן ביי מאשינין,
דארטן איז מיין רוע-פלאץ.
ניט זוך מיך ווו די פייגל זינגען.
געפנסט מיך דארטן ניט, מיין שאץ.
א שקלאף בין איך, ווו קייטן קלינגען,
דארטן איז מיין רוע-פלאץ.
ניט זוך מיך ווו פענטאנען שפריצן.
געפנסט מיך דארטן ניט, מיין שאץ.
ווו טרערן רינען, ציינער קריצר,
דארטן איז מיין רוע-פלאץ.
און ליבסטו מעך מיט ווארער ליבע,
טא קום צו מיר מיין גואער שאץ.
און הייטער אויף מיין הארץ דאס טריבע.
און מעך מיר זיס מיין רוע-פלעץ.
My Resting Place
Morris Rosenfeld, 1911
Don’t look for me where myrtles are green.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
Where lives wither at the machines,
There is my resting place.
Don’t look for me where birds sing.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
I am a slave where chains ring,
There is my resting place.
Don’t look for me where fountains spray.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
Where tears flow and teeth gnash,
There is my resting place.
And if you love me with true love,
So come to me, my good beloved,
And cheer my gloomy heart
And make sweet my resting place.
Morris Rosenfeld, 1911
Don’t look for me where myrtles are green.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
Where lives wither at the machines,
There is my resting place.
Don’t look for me where birds sing.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
I am a slave where chains ring,
There is my resting place.
Don’t look for me where fountains spray.
You will not find me there, my beloved.
Where tears flow and teeth gnash,
There is my resting place.
And if you love me with true love,
So come to me, my good beloved,
And cheer my gloomy heart
And make sweet my resting place.
אַ נסיעה
די גאַנצע װעלט
האָ ט מיך געפרעגט
די זעלבע שאלה:
Are you alone?
דער גאַנצער װעלט
האָב איך געענטפערט
דעם זעלביקן ענטפער:
Yes, I’m alone.
דעמאָלט האָט דײַן בילד
צו מיר געשמײכלט
נאָנט און טײַער
און ס׳האָ ט אין מיר די גאַנצע װעלט
פאַרלעשן ניט געקאָנט
דײַן פײַער.
די גאַנצע װעלט
האָ ט מיך געפרעגט
די זעלבע שאלה:
Are you alone?
דער גאַנצער װעלט
האָב איך געענטפערט
דעם זעלביקן ענטפער:
Yes, I’m alone.
דעמאָלט האָט דײַן בילד
צו מיר געשמײכלט
נאָנט און טײַער
און ס׳האָ ט אין מיר די גאַנצע װעלט
פאַרלעשן ניט געקאָנט
דײַן פײַער.
A Journey
Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim
A Journey
The whole world
asked me
the same question:
Are You alone?
To the whole world
I answered
the same answer:
Yes, I’m alone!
Then your image
smiled to me
Near and dear
And within me the whole world
could not douse
Your fire.
Rivka Basman Ben-Hayim
A Journey
The whole world
asked me
the same question:
Are You alone?
To the whole world
I answered
the same answer:
Yes, I’m alone!
Then your image
smiled to me
Near and dear
And within me the whole world
could not douse
Your fire.