{"id":68593,"date":"2018-07-12T10:29:44","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T10:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=68593"},"modified":"2018-10-04T08:03:31","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T08:03:31","slug":"who-gets-make-art-jewish-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/who-gets-make-art-jewish-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Wer darf Kunst f\u00fcr das J\u00fcdische Museum machen?"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,8,10172,10897,139],"tags":[4950,5478,10853,10854,10855,5300],"class_list":["post-68593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-berlin","category-film","category-opinion","category-art","tag-daniel-libeskind","tag-james-turrell","tag-jewish-museum-berlin","tag-leontine-meijer-van-mensch","tag-mischa-kuball","tag-rachel-whiteread"],"acf":{"main_category":10897,"legacy":false,"subtitle":"Mischa Kuball's commission for the museums's \"Voids\" begs the question: are non-Jewish artists entitled to make art for commemorative Jewish spaces?","hero":{"video":false,"image":false,"header_color":"black","overlay_color":"","overlay_text_color":"black"},"teasers":{"video":false,"image":false,"width":"4","proportion":"default"},"related_articles":[68590,68588,62785],"next_article":[68590],"content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Mischa Kuball, res\u00b7o\u00b7nant, 2017; \u00a9 Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Ladislav Zajac\/Archiv Mischa Kuball, D\u00fcsseldorf\/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017\r\n"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

When<\/span> Mischa Kuball<\/span><\/a> got invited to create an artwork for the Jewish Museum Berlin<\/a> (JMB) he was surprised. But why would a renowned German artist who\u2019s been making conceptual art since 1977 be surprised with another light and sound commission? \u201cI thought maybe they asked the wrong person because I was not Jewish nor part of the Jewish community,\u201d says the Dusseldorf-based artist. And he was not alone in this assumption that only Jewish artists can make art about Jewish themes or for institutions related to the religion.<\/span><\/p>\n

To this day, the public and media still are still wary of \u2014 if not outright against \u2014 such commissions. Another prominent controversy occurred when, in 2000, Rachel Whiteread was asked to create a sculpture<\/a> dedicated to the 65,000 Austrian Jews killed in the Holocaust. The commission split the city of Vienna in two, with some locals so angered by both Whitehead’s work and her non-Jewish heritage that the project was delayed by four years.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, Kuball\u2019s commission was not for a Holocaust memorial nor for a commemoratory end; it was to create a work in dialogue with the museum’s famous concrete “Voids”, designed by American-Polish architect Daniel Libeskind. Entitled <\/span>res\u00b7o\u00b7nant<\/span><\/a><\/em>, the installation \u2014 comprising a rotating mirror and stroboscopic lights, together with an accompanying soundtrack \u2014 reinterprets the iconic Berlin space, with 24-meter-high ceilings. The “Voids” are an integral part of Libeskind’s celebrated floor plan, called \u201cBetween the lines\u201d and\u00a0based on two set lines, “the building\u2019s visible zigzagging line and an invisible straight line”. The “Voids” is the section where these two lines intersect, and, until now, this part of the space had been used as an education centre.<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"James Turrell, Ganzfeld \"Aural\", 2018; \u00a9 Jewish Museum Berlin, gift of Dieter and Si Rosenkranz, photo: Florian Holzherr"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

The use of sound as a means of penetrating solid surfaces that could not otherwise be tampered with proved integral to Kuball’s nonviolent and subtle approach. \u201cYou need to go through security to enter the museum,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt feels almost like a fortress, so sound is an appropriate medium to circumnavigate these restrictions within the space.\u201d For the installation’s sonic element, Kuball looped a series of one-minute-long sound clips which were composed specially for \u201cres\u00b7o\u00b7nant\u201d by more than 150 musicians. This is the first time the artist has used sound on this scale; Kuball is better known for his use of light as a medium to explore architectural spaces as well as social and political discourses.<\/span><\/p>\n

And was the religious affiliation of these invited musicians important? Not according to the museum’s director, L\u00e9ontine Meijer-van Mensch. \u201cTo invite only Jewish artists would have been assuming an exclusive position \u2014 and that’s not what we are,\u201d she says, referring to the institute’s public funding. \u201cThe building itself is a piece of art and so our exhibitions explore how the museum relates to the world.\u201d Indeed, the museum treats its space and architecture as such and that\u2019s why its directors have invited and continue to invite non-Jewish artist to exhibit there. For example, in 2012 they showed the group exhibition How German Is It?,<\/em>\u00a0featuring 30 Germany-based artists, regardless of religion \u2014 including Turkish artist, \u00d6zlem G\u00fcnyol, who dealt with questions such as whether there is a national identity. And until September 2019, the JMB is also showing Ganzfeld “Aural”<\/em><\/a>, an immersive installation by James Turrell temporarily installed in the museum garden. Turrell and Kuball are both renowned for their works using light \u2014 a central symbol in Judaism linking the beginning and end of creation \u2014 hence their being commissioned. Neither is Jewish, but that didn\u2019t stop the museum from working with them.<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"James Turrell, Ganzfeld \"Aural\", 2018; \u00a9 Jewish Museum Berlin, gift of Dieter and Si Rosenkranz, photo: Florian Holzherr"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

Because of this approach, JMB is constantly criticised by hardliners in the Jewish community, both in Germany and throughout the world.<\/span> The most obvious issue thrown up by this debate is one of cultural appropriation. While many young Jewish artists think it\u2019s possible for German non-Jewish artists to relate a relevant awareness about the position Jews have occupied in society, it\u2019s something that has to be handled with the utmost sensitivity. \u201cIf the showcased art-object seems unrelated, or the relation forced, then it’s up to the curators and museum directors to explain why the work is made visible within these walls,\u201d explains text and image artist\u00a0<\/span>Nina Prader<\/span><\/a>. \u201cGerman non-Jewish artists, when dealing with Jewish subjects or matters, of course have to be extremely careful and respectful in how they frame their work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If a topic is dealt with sensitively, does it still make sense to speak about \u201cpure\u201d subjects that only certain people can work with? For older generations who grew up with Holocaust survivors, for instance, there is an enduring sense of taboo surrounding Germany. \u201cI\u2019ve heard from Israeli friends that their parents tell them never to go to Germany,\u201d says<\/span> Vanessa Gravenor<\/span><\/a>, a Berlin-based, Canadian-Polish artist of Jewish ancestry, who does not consider herself Jewish. But, she says, views of Germany, and Judaism, are changing. \u201cFor people in my generation, these taboos are not as entrenched. I think now we can start imagining non-Jewish artists taking on subject matters of Jewish history and framing that against other narratives of diaspora and also genocide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"Mischa Kuball, res\u00b7o\u00b7nant, light and sound Installation at the Jewish Museum Berlin; \u00a9 Jewish Museum Berlin, Photo: Ladislav Zajac\/Archiv Mischa Kuball, D\u00fcsseldorf\/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

Gravenor also points out that because the generation of Holocaust survivors is dwindling, we need to start thinking of memory as a fluid entity. \u201cThat means that other people who might not have claims to the survivors can engage with the history and connect it to other atrocities,\u201d she says. \u201cOf course, this type of memory work is different than the work that was and is done by survivors who actually experienced these events.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Being able to place oneself in the narrative of representation is a crucial point. In 2017, for instance,\u00a0<\/span>Dana Schutz<\/span><\/a> received heavy criticism for showing Open Casket<\/em>\u00a0at the Whitney Biennial, a painting which depicted\u00a0<\/span>Emmett Till<\/span><\/a>\u2019s corpse. This lead to artist\u00a0<\/span>Hannah Black<\/span><\/a> calling for the painting to be destroyed, claiming that white artists don\u2019t have the right to profit from black pain. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dealing with memories that don\u2019t strictly belong to us, or subjects that don\u2019t affect us directly will continue to remain a contentious and sensitive endeavour in art for years to come. But, that doesn\u2019t mean we should not do it \u2014 we must deal with all sorts of memories if we want to move forward. \u201cOnly through conversation, can ownerships be negotiated with the artist, the curators, the museum directors, the viewers, the journalists and the depicted subjects,\u201d Prader continues. \u201cAll these components react. It does not have to be pleasant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"images","gallery":false,"settings":{"fit_width":"6","caption":"James Turrell, Ganzfeld \"Aural\", 2018; \u00a9 Jewish Museum Berlin, gift of Dieter and Si Rosenkranz, photo: Florian Holzherr"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text_area","text_area":"

Nonetheless, accountability has to play a role in these situations. In Kuball\u2019s case not only was the artist very much aware of his position as the \u201coutsider\u201d, but the museum itself insisted on his skills and vision for the commission, based on his previous body of work. \u201cI\u2019d been following his work for a while,\u201d L\u00e9ontine Meijer-van Mensch says about Kuball, who in the 1990s also made Refraction House<\/em>\u00a0an installation in a synagogue. \u201cHe was just the best for this job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The art world, however, is a place for reflection and free speech, no matter who you are or where you come from. In our current climate, we all experience culture as a hybridisation, and appropriateness rides on self-awareness. Though as with everything in art \u2014 or indeed life \u2014 it\u2019s not so much about what you do but rather how you do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mischa Kuball’s “res\u00b7o\u00b7nant<\/a>” is on view at the Jewish Museum Berlin until summer 2019. Jame’s Turrell’s “Ganzfeld ‘Aural'”<\/a>\u00a0 runs through until September 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

Images courtesy of the\u00a0Jewish Museum Berlin.<\/em><\/p>\n"}],"hero_title":"","facebook_image":false},"yoast_head":"\nWho gets to make art for the Jewish Museum? Who gets to make art for the Jewish Museum?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/who-gets-make-art-jewish-museum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who gets to make art for the Jewish Museum? 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