Punctum
Guided Tour in German Sign Language
Michel; Jewish Museum Berlin, Photo: André Wagenzik
Imagine an arrow. It flies toward you. This is how an object comes to you. You don’t know why it is approaching you. But it touches you. It hurts you. And you set out to discover why it touches and hurts you.
Michel was a teenager when he arrived in Germany from Syria. He is deaf. In 2020, he visited the Jewish Museum for the first time on a school trip and was overwhelmed with emotion. Today he guides visitors through the core exhibition. He uses his own experiences of having to flee, being excluded and starting anew, and focuses on individual ways to connect to German-Jewish history. Which moment, which object or photo makes a lasting impression and why? Inspired by Roland Barthes’ concept of a “punctum,” Michel presents his personal highlights of the core exhibition and encourages participants to create their own connections to history.
The guided tour is in German Sign Language and is aimed at teenagers and adults.
