Special Exhibitions and Cultural Program in March and April 2011

Special Exhibitions

Micha Ullman: "Under" ("Unten")

Micha Ullman is one of the most important Israeli sculptors of his generation. His family fled a Thuringian village in 1933 to Palestine, where he was born in Tel Aviv in 1939. His work has been shown in public places in Germany since the 1970s. Best-known is his memorial to the book burning at Bebelplatz.

The Jewish Museum Berlin acquired an important work by Micha Ullman last year: The installation "Under" is now on show with sketches by the artist acquired at an earlier date and a video on the artist at the Eric F. Ross Gallery. Here Micha Ullman picks up on a thread that runs through many of his works, namely that the object itself is absent, invisible, and inaccessible. He thus enters into congenial dialog with the architecture of Daniel Libeskind and his concept of voids.

When: 18 March to 1 May 2011

Where: Libeskind Building, ground level, Eric F. Ross Gallery in the permanent exhibition

Admission with the museum ticket (5 €, reduced rate 2 euros)

Radical Jewish Culture

The New York Music Scene Since the 1990s

"Radical Jewish Culture" was an avant-garde Jewish music movement that developed in the New York underground scene at the beginning of the 1990s. The movement was triggered not least by the Nazi mass murder of European Jews that had up to then been successfully repressed by the generation of survivors and immigrants. The music blends free jazz forms with klezmer improvisations, experimental music with rock, blues, and punk. Musicians such as John Zorn, David Krakauer, Marc Ribot, Anthony Coleman, and Frank London passionately explored the possibilities for a new form of Jewish music, emancipating themselves from conformity and inconspicuousness. They played in clubs and at festivals and founded music labels. The exhibition "Radical Jewish Culture" presents this music scene through audiovisual documents, lots of music samples, and primarily unpublished material.

An exhibition by the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, Paris.

When : 8 April to 24 July 2011

Where : Old Building on first level

Admission: 4 €, reduced rate 2 euros

Program Surrounding the Special Exhibition "Radical Jewish Culture"

David Krakauer

Talk with Music

Clarinetist, band leader, composer, and soloist David Krakauer has been closely associated with the Radical Jewish Culture movement since its beginning in the early 1990s. He initially came to John Zorn’s attention through his pioneering work with the Klezmatics in the late 80s at the old Knitting Factory in New York City. In 1992 he was part of the premiere of Zorn’s epic composition "Kristallnacht" at "Art Projekt ’92" in Munich, which launched the concept of "Radical Jewish Culture."

When: 13 April 2011, 8 pm

Where: Glass Courtyard, ground level

Tickets: 8 €, reduced rate 5 euros

Reservations (for non-journalists) on tel. +49 (0)30 25 993 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de

Cultural Program

Foundation "Zurückgeben"

Presentation Day

What happens when Berlin Jewish female artists and scientists meet? The Foundation "ZURÜCKGEBEN" supports art and science projects of Jewish women in Germany. On this day, projects of former scholarship holders are presented.

Music, art, films, and talks provide an impression of how Jews in Germany live today, how Jewish traditions impact daily life, where Jewish districts can be found, and how the old, long-forgotten songs sound.

When: 13 March 2011, 11 am to 7 pm

Where: Old Building, second level, Great Hall

Admission: free

Rahel Levin Varnhagen: Rahel

Ein Buch des Andenkens für ihre Freunde (A book devoted to her friends)

Book Launch with Corinna Harfouch

Rahel Levin Varnhagen, the great Jewish salonière from Berlin, kept up a lively, often passionate correspondence with a variety of friends, acquaintances, and salon guests. Through their immediacy and spontaneity, these letters still captivate readers today and are a testimony to her ties with many great minds of her time. After her death, her husband Karl August Varnhagen von Ense published two versions of the collection and prepared a considerably extended version for publication – a project that only comes to fruition now with this edition. Corinna Harfouch will read a selection of these texts.

Opening remarks by Barbara Hahn (editor) and Brigitte Kronauer.

In cooperation with the German Academy for Language and Poetry, the Wüstenrot Foundation, and Wallstein Publishers.

When: 16 March 2011, 7.30 pm

Where: Old Building, second level, Great Hall

Admission free with seat ticket only (available at the cash desk). Seats are limited.

Justice and Peace

Conference

The establishment of an international justice system has made the interface between peace and justice a focus of intense policy debate. This conference examines how tensions between the desires to secure stability, on the one hand, and seek accountability on the other have been addressed in different country situations – from Serbia and Rwanda to the DR Congo and Afghanistan, and the recent failed peace negotiations in Uganda – with the aim of drawing lessons relevant for principled and effective policymaking.

In cooperation with Human Rights Watch.

When: 17 March 2011, 10 am to 4 pm

Where: Old Building, second level, Great Hall

Tickets: 10 €, reduced rate 5 euros

Reservations on tel. +49 (0)30 25 993 353 or konferenz@jmberlin.de

Lena Gorelik: Lieber Mischa (Dear Mischa)

Book Presentation with the Author

In her new book, Lena Gorelik explains to her son how he can later escape her maternal care. She tells him why so much crying goes on at family parties although his parents are not religious. Why his grandfather prefers doing sudokus to reading the Torah. And why he should be proud of his nose and ears. Jewish identity is by no means only linked to the Holocaust for Lena Gorelik, for she belongs to a generation of young Jews in Germany who define themselves through their future, not their past.

In cooperation with the Literaturhandlung.

When: 21 March 2011, 7.30 pm

Where: Old Building, second level, Great Hall

Admission: 9 €, reduced rate 7 euros

Ticket reservation (for non-journalists) at the Literaturhandlung on tel. +49 (0)30 88 24 250