Jewish Life in Argentina

The Jewish Contribution to Argentine Intellectual Life

The guiding theme for the content and design of the exhibition’s four installations was the medium of the book as a document and symbol for the Jewish contribution to Argentine intellectual life. For example, the installation Bookstore of Memory drew from 200 selected biographies of Argentine-Jewish public figures in telling the story of a country that sees its inhabitants’ cultural and ethnic diversity as the cornerstone of its identity.

Memorialization from an Argentine-Jewish Perspective

The subject of memory culture was also prominent. From an Argentine-Jewish perspective, the exhibition relates not only to the Jewish Museum Berlin but also to works such as Micha Ullmann’s Book Burning Memorial at Bebelplatz in Berlin and Gunter Demnig’s Stumbling Stones. The exhibition aimed foremost to keep alive memories of the Holocaust, of the Argentine military dictatorship, of the attack on the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, but also of the Jewish community’s contribution to the development of the Argentine nation and society.

The installations were be flanked by a timeline and films placing Jewish life in Argentina in historical context.

Collaborative Partnerships

The exhibition by the Organizing Committee for Argentina’s Participation as Guest of Honor at the 2010 Frankfurt Book Fair (the Republic of Argentina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade, and Worship) was produced in cooperation with AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) and the Embassy of Argentina in Germany.

Concept and set-up: Elio Kapszuk
Curators: Elio Kapszuk, Ana E. Weinstein