Background to the exhibition project
Jewish, creative, inspiring …
To be human today, one must understand the past.
The life stories of Jewish female artists – who were once neighbours in Leipzig – come to life and feel relevant decades, even centuries later. This initiative, and its artistic realisation through this exhibition project, is based on extensive research and an archive collection by ELISABETH GUHR. A native of Leipzig, she has been conducting independent research for decades – right up to the present day – whilst actively engaged in civil society, into the ‘lives of Jewish women’ with links to Leipzig and Gohlis.
In order to raise public awareness of this documentary material – which is so valuable, especially today – concerning aspects of Jewish life in Leipzig and Saxony, the team at Frauenkultur Leipzig developed this exhibition project in collaboration with Elisabeth Guhr and the visual artist JELENA RADOSAVLJEVIC.
Using a unique exhibition format, 18 portrait panels featuring 20 Jewish female artists who lived in Leipzig were created, based on the aforementioned biographical texts and research. The photographs – some of which are very old and of low resolution, and whose copyright holders are unknown – were artistically reimagined by JELENA RADOSAVLJEVIC within the context of the respective biographical insights and the relevant socio-cultural environment. The same applies to individual female artists for whom no images exist at all. These creative, artistic exhibition panels convey, through art, painting and biographical milestones, both societal and individual moments of Jewish life – moments that can thus be made publicly visible.
And since our present, in the year 2026, is increasingly defined by public polarisation, instrumentalisation, claims to interpretative authority and power, marginalisation and exclusion … we must inevitably grapple with the consequences: necessary shifts in perspective are occurring less and less in reality – and consequently, within our own and societal spheres, there are fewer peace- and life-sustaining distinctions being made in conflicts. Confrontational divisions in all areas of life are becoming entrenched – and are jeopardising the goal of all people living together without hatred or violence. For civil society to mount a counter-response, it is essential, amongst other things, to have: causal knowledge of the past – in order to be able to understand the present.
The cartoonist Friedel Stern was invited to ‘Karicartoon’ in Leipzig in 2005, the international gathering of the cartoon scene. Friedel Stern was able to emigrate from Leipzig in 1936 – her mother could not; she was murdered in 1940 by the fascist National Socialists who were in power at the time. When asked whether Leipzig had been good for her, Friedel Stern replied:
“… very well … I hated my hometown. … I couldn’t talk about my mother before; I’d always break down in tears. I don’t really forget or forgive. But the people living here today are very different from those of 70 years ago. I’m very keen to accept that. …”
This context is also reflected, amongst other things, in the exhibition project by Frauenkultur Leipzig entitled “Jewish, creative, inspiring …”. And everyone should/must be aware of the deeply inhumane atrocities committed during the Second World War.
The following was enshrined in our Basic Law in 1949: “Human dignity shall be inviolable!”. The developments mentioned above in the present day necessitate the absolutely essential and future-securing realisation of “Never again. Never again is now!”
This profoundly humanistic guiding principle applies to all acts of war and other actions that violate human rights worldwide … in establishing and maintaining peace for all people … today and tomorrow … entirely regardless of socio-economic background, religious affiliation, socio-cultural roots, education or gender_… regardless of where one lives … _Gaza/Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Iran, Myanmar, Ukraine …
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NOTE: *) Due to the nature of the exhibition format, the biographical details listed above have necessarily been abridged. Visitors to the exhibition have the opportunity to read extended versions of the biographical details in the exhibition folders provided. The entire, very extensive project includes further biographies, additional content and research … is in progress – also online…
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