The Blue Room

Avital Yomdin, artist from Israel, came to Berlin seven years ago; Jüdisches Museum Berlin, Foto: Sven Alfred Strecker

“It is especially meaningful for me that The Blue Room is being shown at the Jewish Museum Berlin. Visitors to the museum often arrive with certain preconceptions about antisemitism. Through our artworks, which deal directly or indirectly with refuge-seeking, war, and racism, they can make new associations with Jewish history in Germany.”

Ayub Shekan, artist from Iraq, in Berlin since 2015; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“This project was the first time in twenty-two years that I got a chance to put a paintbrush to canvas! In Iraq, as an automotive painter, I decorated the exteriors of cars, but here in the Blue Room I had the time and space to work on large-scale oil paintings over several weeks. Oil paints and canvases were always at the ready.”

Birgit Russi, teacher and translator from Lübeck; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“In this environment, it was also exciting to learn something from the artists about the art scene in Syria. Personal exploration of the artistic positions represented here gave me fresh insight into artistic processes.”

Chuz Lopez Vidal; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker
In The Blue Room, Chuz Lopez Vidal and Miss Lata formed an artistic duo:

“We were already close friends, but at the Jewish Museum Berlin, we got to know each other as artists. We began an artistic dialogue.”

Miss Lata; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker
Miss Lata and Chuz Lopez Vidal on their artistic collaboration in Blue Room:

“We work in different artistic disciplines. We each tried our hand at the other person’s skill set. That expanded our artistic horizons.”

Dirk Heider, designer from Berlin; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker
Dirk on his project in The Blue Room:

“There is something ephemeral about it. But also something cowardly. You can see the face of Fabrice Leggeri, the director of Frontex, the European border control agency. With his work, he intervenes in people’s lives, endangers them. But he doesn’t do it out in the open, he does it far away from his desk in Warsaw.”

Hadi Taher, photographer from Iraq; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“I discovered that our group was accepting of LGBTQI people and appreciated the connections between us, with all of us coming from different countries and different cultures.”

Isabel Brosch, artist based in Berlin; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“The most exciting thing about this project is being part of the development, playing a part. Learning to stand or walk in other shoes – in new, different perspectives. Both in a concrete artistic process and in an intellectual exploration.”

Janina Schütz, sculptor from Berlin; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“The Blue Room at the Jewish Museum Berlin, as I see it, is a cocoon in a cocoon. Surrounded by Berlin, surrounded by the walls of the museum and its history, it gives the project participants a framework for coming together. Many things go unspoken, but in fact in the short period of our meetings, there is a lively exchange between people from different backgrounds that would not be possible without the safety of this human-made cocoon.”

Mareike Drobny, artist; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“For me, the Blue Room is more of a state of being, a sensation similar to floating, where you don’t know where it is heading. For me, the reason to take part in the project was for the encounter and exchange.”

Nidal Jalouk, artist, architect, and musician; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“If you ask me, The Blue Room is a blue room. A venue for mutual encounter and for an exhibition, in which I observed what was happening step-by-step and translated it into my own terms. I would like to work more there in the future because I enjoy the complexity of this artistic encounter as well as our interest in the snacks and sweets during the meeting. But I would try to talk about democracy away from power structures and prejudices. I will be meeting up with the artists from our group, who have become friends.”

Norrem, artist, fled Syria in August 2015; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“The fantastic architecture of the building and the concept of the museum provided a unique setting for exploring the subject of the emotional dimension of migration. This was a challenge I wanted to rise to as an artist.”

Nouria Khadeeva, lives in Berlin, born in Russia; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“For me, the Blue Room signifies a personal re-encounter with my own past. With a time filled with fear and hopelessness, loss and desperation. I tried to reflect my personal experiences in my painting Aquarium of Memories.”

Orly Goldenberg, cake designer from Berlin; photo: Anja Berkes

“After two years of volunteering with refugees, The Blue Roomwas the perfect opportunity for me to connect my passion for art to people who have furthered my education as an artist with their experiences. Before the project, art was more of a hobby for me but that has now changed for good!”

Persefoni Myrtsou, artist and PhD candidate in European ethnology (HU Berlin), lives and works in Berlin and Istanbul; Jewish Museum Berlin; photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“This Blue Room in Berlin was definitely a kind of reality check for me. It gave me a chance to meet artists outside the conventional, idiosyncratic, ‘professional’ global art scene – far from the institutions and networks, the fancy clothing and Vitamin C.”

Rais Khalilov, artist; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“A creative atmosphere, free-flowing ideas, pure art – that’s is what The Blue Room at the Jewish Museum means to me. It is a space for encounter and an art laboratory where my only task was to realize my artistic ideas – nearly all my wishes for materials, canvas, paints, brushes were satisfied.”

Sven Alfred Strecker, photographer from Berlin, photo: Franz Zwerschina

“At first, I was very interested in realizing a project with other artists. But at the beginning, everyone had their own specific ideas of what they wanted to contribute to the exhibition. So I found a quiet corner where I could focus and simply ‘composed’ away on my own. It’s great now that my fellow artists seem interested in my work and that I can contribute some of my photographic works to other projects. Not to mention that I am ‘shadowing’ the entire project photographically.”

Ziva Kovacev, painter from Vojvodina, Serbia, lives in Berlin; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Sven Alfred Strecker

“The Blue Room is in Berlin. Berlin is one of my artistic dreams. Berlin is my new home and every home is a beloved.”