CHANUKAH
“What is truly revolutionary is the secret signal of what is to come that speaks from the gesture of the child.”
Walter Benjamin
– A photograph. 1927, Berlin. A large, mirrored room. A villa. A social gathering. 46 people. A family. Friends. Formally dressed. The ruins of a celebration: cracked champagne, the remains of a rich meal on silver platters, a white tablecloth. A wedding. The flash illuminates, fixes, frames the moment. Of the 7 children seated in the front row, a girl, 8 years old, an innocent gesture. She holds her hand in front of her eyes: ‘So the flash won’t blind me…those were the happy times’, she will testify 60 years later in Buffalo, New York. When her granddaughter describes the photo to a young man, her roommate, in Paris on December 7th, 2004, she will add: ‘She was the only survivor. In a way, we could have been neighbors.’ It was Chanukah, her twenty-sixth, his first. –
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The holiday of Chanukah is not only a crucial point of convergence in this story but also serves as inspiration for the project’s structure and orientation. Traditionally, one more flame is added to the Chanukah menorah on each consecutive night of the holiday until all eight candles burn along with the shamash (the helper candle used to ignite them all) on the final night. In addition to symbolizing the oil that miraculously burned for eight days instead of one during the rededication of the temple, each added flame reminds celebrants of resistance and resilience in the face of oppression. They are meant to kindle the lights of knowledge and hope, driving away the darkness of ignorance so that truth may emerge. The Chanukah project intends to observe this ritual by means of a long-term, iterative artistic exploration in which each successive presentation builds upon the previous ones, shedding more light on the topic as it evolves and becomes more refined. The search for the appropriate aesthetic form for the material runs parallel to a deeply critical excavation of the complexities inherent in the underlying themes.
With the aforementioned family photo as a point of departure, the entirety of the project consists of 9 artistic iterations that explore the texture of a century, following several threads across multiple generations from the past, present, and into the future. Biographical and autobiographical references and encounters provide an initial foundation that is supported and enriched through annotations. Among the works consulted and discussed are Jean Améry’s At the Mind’s Limits, Peter Weiss’ The Aesthetics of Resistance, the novels of Greta Weil, Chava Rosenberg’s The Tree of Life, Dara Horn’s People Love Dead Jews, critical texts by Jack Zipes, and Peter Hacks’ Die Maßgaben der Kunst [The Requirements of Art]. Yiddish folktales and dramatic works have as much inspirational effect as the collaboration between Walter Benjamin and Asja Lācis. The testimonies of surviving relatives are, of course, an important part of the discussion, and serve as both thematic entry points and essential touchstones. Current events and debates form distinctive time stamps throughout the iterations. With the means of art and theory, the Chanukah project endeavors to create a form that does not forget critical enlightenment and universalistic values and, where necessary, opposes the status quo.
The project initiators, Kate Hannah Weinrieb (theater artist & educator) and Sebastian Weise (cultural worker & organizer), met in 2004 at Philippe Gaulier’s International Theater School in Paris. Despite growing up in very different circumstances and systems, they quickly formed a special friendship characterized by mutual interest and respect. The story of her grandmother’s photo and the story of his grandfather, who was deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp with the note ‘Rückkehr unerwünscht’ [‘Do Not Return’] and subsequently liberated there in 1945, soon led to connections that wanted further reflection. 18 years after their first discussion, they finally examined the photo together. With the Chanukah project, they aim to give form to the ensuing confrontation in collaboration with other international artists and designers.
Due to its biographical elements and intended artistic encounters, the Chanukah project has both local and international prospects. With its iterative structure, it seeks to overcome the contemporary tendency towards the fragmentary and promote the courage, perseverance, and ambition that a more complex piece, and a more complex view of the world, demands today.
The first iteration, Chanukah I – A Prologue, was presented to the public at freiLand Potsdam on December 7th and 8th 2023, the first and second nights of Chanukah and exactly 19 years after the initial conversation about the photograph.
Libertalia e.V. 