Der Vegele Fun Doikeyt
(The Hereness Wagon)
(The Hereness Wagon)
Daniel Toretsky
An improvised lightweight structure and musical instrument performed at multiple locations around Venice and carried in a rolling suitcase. variably 60” x 72” x 120”; materials include wood dowels, 3d printed joints, suitcase, painted cardboard, homemade interactive electronics
Wandering the periphery of the Venice Architecture Biennale, one might encounter Der Vegele Fun Doikeyt (The Hereness Wagon), one of the manifestations of Yiddishland Pavilion 2025. Unpacked from a rolling suitcase, an improvised structure of sticks, joints, and hand-painted figures becomes sculpture, ritual, and mobile commons.
The Hereness Wagon emerges from Daniel Toretsky’s ongoing research into contemporary Yiddish and Jewish architecture, shaped by a 2024 visit to the Venice Art Biennale and years of music-making in New York City. It rests on the premise that the vernacular architecture of Yiddishland is both transient and tethered, ephemeral and eternal, sacred and profane, that Jewish architecture in its essence uses a minimal amount of material to imbue an existing place with maximal meaning.
Vernacular architecture refers to everyday building practices shaped by local materials, climate, and customs. Across the Jewish diaspora, forms like the sukke, eruv, khupe, and shul make up a distinct vernacular: portable, temporary, assembled from simple parts, and brought to life through communal ritual. Yiddish architecture, like the Yiddish language, fuses these Jewish typologies with the local styles of wherever Yiddish is spoken.
The Hereness Wagon emerges from Daniel Toretsky’s ongoing research into contemporary Yiddish and Jewish architecture, shaped by a 2024 visit to the Venice Art Biennale and years of music-making in New York City. It rests on the premise that the vernacular architecture of Yiddishland is both transient and tethered, ephemeral and eternal, sacred and profane, that Jewish architecture in its essence uses a minimal amount of material to imbue an existing place with maximal meaning.
Vernacular architecture refers to everyday building practices shaped by local materials, climate, and customs. Across the Jewish diaspora, forms like the sukke, eruv, khupe, and shul make up a distinct vernacular: portable, temporary, assembled from simple parts, and brought to life through communal ritual. Yiddish architecture, like the Yiddish language, fuses these Jewish typologies with the local styles of wherever Yiddish is spoken.
The Hereness Wagon embraces this lineage. The artist opens the suitcase and assembles a triangulated “space-frame” structure, improvised each time to suit its surroundings. Its geometry is inspired by Yona Friedman, who envisioned megastructures supporting a society of free-will, and of Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt), whose ethereal wire sculptures defied gravity and hierarchy. Both were Holocaust survivors, native Yiddish speakers, and visionaries of democratic space.
At the core of the Wagon’s presence there is doikeyt—“hereness”—a Bundist philosophy born in Eastern Europe: that Jewish freedom is found not in nationalism, but in local solidarity and shared struggle with co-marginalized others. In this lineage too, the Wagon creates a site of collective presence—dancing, storytelling, and sound. Painted characters from Yiddish folklore are wired into sound circuits: klezmer fragments, protest chants, lullabies, layered over a driving techno beat. The architecture comes alive. So does the crowd.
And then, like its vernacular predecessors, it dissolves. The structure is dismantled, each piece returned to the suitcase. The music fades. What’s left is memory, motion, and an ongoing portable Yiddishland.
After its journey, the Wagon will continue to travel. Eventually, its painted figures and electronic core will be retired elsewhere—but the suitcase and space-frame will remain, ready to be reopened, rebuilt, and reimagined by the next artist.
At the core of the Wagon’s presence there is doikeyt—“hereness”—a Bundist philosophy born in Eastern Europe: that Jewish freedom is found not in nationalism, but in local solidarity and shared struggle with co-marginalized others. In this lineage too, the Wagon creates a site of collective presence—dancing, storytelling, and sound. Painted characters from Yiddish folklore are wired into sound circuits: klezmer fragments, protest chants, lullabies, layered over a driving techno beat. The architecture comes alive. So does the crowd.
And then, like its vernacular predecessors, it dissolves. The structure is dismantled, each piece returned to the suitcase. The music fades. What’s left is memory, motion, and an ongoing portable Yiddishland.
After its journey, the Wagon will continue to travel. Eventually, its painted figures and electronic core will be retired elsewhere—but the suitcase and space-frame will remain, ready to be reopened, rebuilt, and reimagined by the next artist.
Daniel Toretsky
Since graduating from Cornell’s architecture program in 2016, Daniel Toretsky has lived in Brooklyn, working as a design educator, architect, and exhibit designer. He is currently pursuing an MFA at The New School, focusing on interactive media, alongside an art practice rooted in community participation and the Jewish diaspora.
Raised in the Yiddish revival scene, Daniel explores Jewish spatial rituals—often portable, ephemeral, or imagined—to build gathering spaces that reflect on heritage, injustice, and speculative futures. His work contributes to a vision of Judeo-futurism, inspired by Afrofuturism, reimagining Jewish practice through a diasporic, anti-colonial lens.
Daniel sees a sustainable diasporic future as inseparable from climate justice. His upcoming work looks to pre-capitalist Jewish ecology, anti-colonial notions of transience and territory, and alternatives to extractive economies. He also plays trombone in klezmer bands and swims at Brighton Beach on weekends.
Raised in the Yiddish revival scene, Daniel explores Jewish spatial rituals—often portable, ephemeral, or imagined—to build gathering spaces that reflect on heritage, injustice, and speculative futures. His work contributes to a vision of Judeo-futurism, inspired by Afrofuturism, reimagining Jewish practice through a diasporic, anti-colonial lens.
Daniel sees a sustainable diasporic future as inseparable from climate justice. His upcoming work looks to pre-capitalist Jewish ecology, anti-colonial notions of transience and territory, and alternatives to extractive economies. He also plays trombone in klezmer bands and swims at Brighton Beach on weekends.