(Not) a good time for love

Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center presents the exhibition (Not) a Good Time for Love. Love Stories of the Holocaust Survivors. The project is based on the recently published diaries, memoirs and biographies of the concentration camps prisoners, Jewish guerillas and members of the political underground as well as their children, grandchildren and invited biographers.

Books recalling love and resistance in the times of the Holocaust are a recent phenomenon connected to the fact that there are less and less eyewitnesses alive and at the same time to the rising popularity of the New Sincerity. These stories remind us that Shoah is a tragedy with many faces and multiple consequences and can be seen through the everyday lives of the victims. 

Exhibition (Not) a Good Time for Love chooses love and care in the times of the Holocaust in search of new perspectives on the traumatising experience and new language to represent individual memories. 

The project presents 10 love stories – Inge Katz and Shmuel Berger, Roshelle Shleif and Jack Soutine, Mani Nagelstein and Meyer Korenblit and other victims of the tragedy who lived through separation, death of their children, friends and relatives in the time of war. 

The exhibition will be filled with memories of the past weddings, dates in ghettoes, forbidden presents, mutual care, dreams of home, family and own land – Palestine. Witnesses’ stories engage into dialogue with works of contemporary artists exploring the history of the Holocaust and other military conflicts. 

Artists on display will include: Christian Boltanski from France, Miroslaw Balka, Polish sculptor, along with drawings by concentration camp prisoners Gabi Neyman, Esther Shenfeld and Ilka Gedo as well as installations by contemporary artists from Israel – Sigalit Landau, Tal Shohat, Michal Rovner, Lee Yanor, Rami Ater, Mosh Kashi, Nelly Agassi and others. 

Exhibition (Not) a Good Time for Love is an attempt to explore the role of the contemporary art museum in the development of the memory culture. How do we transform a collective memory into spontaneous and sacred event? How does contemporary art state the value of the individual experience of the Holocaust victims? How do we transform the memorial ritual of visiting the Holocaust exhibitions into collective empathy experience?

In the framework of this project the Jewish Museum will not use photo and video materials thus saying no to the theatricalization of the memory in an attempt to engage into a deep emotional contact with the memories of the eye witnesses. 

The exhibition is dedicated to the 75^th International Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January). 

Curated by Katia Krylova

Architects Kirill Asse, Nadezhda Korbut

Exhibition online view