Termine 2014
Ausstellung 2014
|
12. Mai bis 19. Mai |
Ausstellung in der Knesset (Jerusalem) |
Texte/Berichte zur
Mai-Ausstellung in der Knesset (Jerusalem)
Bericht im
Ostfriesischen Kurier (31.05.2014) als PDF
Bericht auf israelnetz.com (externer Link)
zum Vergrößern bitte klicken
Eröffnungsrede von Ricardo Fuhrmann (englisch)
Ladies and gentlemen
My name is Ricardo Fuhrmann and I'm not only speaking as one of the artists but
also on behalf of my associate the artist Daniel Jelin, who unfortunately can' t
be here for family reasons.
I'm an artist and I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with German-Jewish
roots. I have been living in Eastern-Frisia, a small part of Germany close to
the Netherlands for over 20 years. Eastern-Frisia was the home of my family
before they escape from the Holocaust.
I'm very proud to present our exhibition "Ostfriesland-Haggadah" here in the
Knesset today.
I have been interested in Haggadot and especially in the history of their
illustration for more than 25 years. In the early 90-ties I had the
fortune to meet Mr. Herbert Jonas, also a German-Jewish citizen. He was a great
book lover and he had at that time a collection from over 700 Haggadot.
A unique opportunity to arouse my curiosity and my desire to learn. That was the
time when I decided that some day I would also illustrate a Haggadah.
Our dream to create a new one could become reality many years later by the help
of the "Deutsche-Israelische Gesellschaft Ostfriesland", the German-Israeli
Friendship Association from Eastern-Frisia, specially by the wonderful and
endless engagement of Mr. Wolfgang Freitag.
The whole project consists of two steps:
In the first step, wich lasted two years, we developed 52 artworks inspired by
the Haggadah. As artists our main goal was to experiment and not only to try new
visions of the well-known themes but also to discover some new subjects to
illustrate.
Here is only one example: as we went on with our research , we found out that
Moses was probably a stammer, as he said from himself in front of the burning
bush: "I have a heavy thongue ".
We created three artworks related to this subject. One of them is here. As far
as I know it is the first time that something like this is done.
The result of our work was presented in five different german cities attended by
a great number of visitors. for us as artists it was really amazing and
stimulating to see the reaction of the visitors and their inmense curiosity in
Jewish culture. The first step was succesfully finished in December 2013.
What you can see here is not the complete exhibition but a kind of documentation
with some original artworks. I would like to highlight that all , really all,
the works were done by Daniel Jelin and by myself as an artist-duo. A really
difficult challenge but also very inspiring.
As a second step we want to create a small edition of artist-books, handcoloured,
handbounded with fully new originals. This "Ostfriesland-Haggadah" will be in
German and Hebrew and finished, we hope, by Pessach 2015.
It follows the tradition to name some Haggadot after the place where they were
created.
We are more than happy to announce the beginning of step two in your presence
and at this very special place,the Knesset.
But we have another reason to be thankful:
There is a group here of people from Eastern-Frisia who have specially come to
join this presentattion.
And there are also present Mr. Samuel Blum, the son of the last Rabbi in
Eastern-Frisia, Mrs. Shulamit Jaari (nee Sophie Nussbaum), Both of them live
here in Israel but were born in Eastern-Frisia and escaped from the Holocaust.
for us they are very, very special guests.
I must not forget to thank some people for all their very kind help and enormous
support. All this would not have been possible without them. The wave of
solidarity that criss-crossed the preparations for the exhibition and also for
this presentation, overhelmed us. All over the way we found not only open ears
but also open hearts.
Let me add only one more important aspect for us. Eastern-Frisia is , and I
don´t mean it malliciously, really in a certain way at the end of the world and
there are no more Jewish communities since the second world war. We are very
moved that such a project could be able to bloom there and not in the
fashionable Berlin or in the rich Munich.
This time a new Haggadah is coming from the deep Germany all the way here to the
Knesset and we are full of joy and proud for that.
Thank you very much
Ricardo Fuhrmann
