On Friendship / (Collateral Damage)

ON FRIENDSHIP / (COLLATERAL DAMAGE) 

Since 2015 Joseph Sassoon Semah and curator Linda Bouws are closely involved in the large-multi-year project entitled: On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) in which Sassoon Semah supplements Western art-history with the missing information, the ‘empty page'.

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) IV - How to Explain Hare Hunting to a Dead German Artist [The usefulness of continuous measurement of the distance between Nostalgia and Melancholia], 'Hasenjagd' is the code word for killing Jews during WWII (2021-2023).

In 2021/2022 the 100th anniversary of the birth of the artist Joseph Beuys was celebrated in Europe, among others with a special event Beuys 2021. 100 years. Joseph Beuys (1921, Krefeld - 1986, Dusseldorf) is one of the influential post-war German artists, who became particularly famous for his performances, installations, lectures, and Fluxus concerts. 

But who is Beuys truly?

Joseph Beuys mythologized his war story as a National Socialist and Germany's post-traumatic era. After WWII Beuys transformed himself from perpetrator to victim. And yet, his service in the Luftwaffe during WWII did not really effect his artistic practice. During the 100-years manifestation the controversial activities, the significance, the post-war culture, and the political ideas of Joseph Beuys have not been properly criticised. As part of the celebration, it is high time we add a critical eye on Beuys' work, as well as on his association with Germany's post-war era. Joseph Sassoon Semah takes us on a critical journey concerning Beuys. He has done extensive research on Joseph Beuys' activities, values, and ideas while analyzing in the process the deeper meaning of the (hidden) symbols used by Beuys. He responded to Beuys with old and new three-dimensional works, a series of old and new drawings, performances, texts, and meetings.

Publication On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) IV -How to Explain Hare Hunting to a Dead German Artist [The usefulness of continuous measurement of the distance between Nostalgia and Melancholia] will be published in February 2023.

With texts by Joseph Sassoon Semah, Hans Peter Riegel, Arie Hartog, Linda Bouws, Rick Vercauteren, Ton Nijhuis, Mati Shemoelof, Markus Netterscheidt, Albert Groot, David de Boer, Paul Groot, Eelco Mes, Bas Marteijn and Andreas Wöhle.

Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten

Final editing: Linda Bouws & Joseph Sassoon Semah

Design + layout: kunstburo geert schriever 

A4, 160 pages, full colour

ISBN 9789090368399

The richly illustrated publication can now be ordered: Stichting Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten, € 39.95 and € 5 shipping costs, account number NL 42 INGB 0006 9281 68 stating On Friendship IV, name and address.

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) III – The Third GaLUT: Baghdad, Jerusalem, Amsterdam (2019-2020), the dominant subject was the significance of lost culture, exile, hospitality, and identity. At 36 very different and diverse locations in Amsterdam, Joseph Sassoon Semah shared his forgotten cultural heritage via visual art, performances, debates and lectures. For the manifestation, Sassoon Semah produced 36 architectural models based on houses, cultural institutions, synagogues and Jewish graveyards in Baghdad prior to 1948, referring to the lost rich history of the Jewish Babylonian culture.

At the same time, he built two temporary houses - named MaKOM in MaKOM - in Amsterdam (Hermitage Amsterdam), and in Jerusalem (Jerusalem Biennale). In the manifestation, specific reference was made to the cultural and religious diversity in Jewish communities, with the purpose of giving the rich Babylonian Jewish culture a place next to the Western Jews, and the memory of SHOAH. In a metaphorical sense, Part III is an ode to a lost culture, and at the same time an invitation to dialogue between the different points of view in Judaism.

Publication The richly illustrated publication Joseph Sassoon Semah - On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) III - The Third GaLUT: Baghdad, Jerusalem, Amsterdam can be ordered: Stichting Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten, € 39.95 and € 5 shipping costs, account number NL 42 INGB 0006 9281 68 stating On Friendship III, name and address.

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) II – The Guardians of the Door (2017-2018), the focus was on Martin Luther and 500 years since the start of the Reformation, a critical artistic reflection on Luther's image as a 'superstar', including his antisemitic publication named On the Jews and Their Lies (1543), it's meaning, then and now. The critical reflection included works of art, artistic interventions, performances, lectures and a publication. The Nieuwe Kerk, Joods Historisch Museum, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Goethe-Institut Amsterdam were partners in the project. As part of this manifestation, Joseph Sassoon Semah created a work of art entitled The Doubling of the House in the premises of the Stedelijk Museum, and he gave 5 performances with friends, in which he responded to the collection of the Museum. Prior to the performances, a Stedelijk Statement evening took place and the accompanying book was presented. In one of the performances, he painted a tetragrammaton on the wall of the historic staircase in which he first made a reference to Toroni's vanished work, that is before he painted over it a black square. From the moment this black square was painted on the wall, the future discourse with ‘the Guest’ is no longer without obligation. The Guest becomes part of the institute. The Guest is transformed into the Host.

Publication The richly illustrated publication On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) II - The Guardians of the Door can be ordered: Stichting Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten,   € 35 and € 5 shipping costs, account number NL 42 INGB 0006 9281 68 stating On Friendship II, name and address.

In part I of On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) -2015 - our lawyer B.A. Vink called upon Beatrix Ruf (director of the Stedelijk Museum) to account for 'the empty page' (lack of Jewish context) in art history on behalf of the art world. The accompanying information provided by the museum gives less attention to the Jewish narrative. Such as the information provided about the artwork of Kazimir Malevich (The Black Square) and Barnett Newman. As a result of our project, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam adapted our information to the hall text of Newman's Cathedra, and by that The black square cannot view only through the lens of the Futuristic Manifesto and Christian tradition, but also through the Jewish layers of meaning.

Publication The richly illustrated publication On Friendship / (Collateral Damage can be ordered: Stichting Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten, € 25 and € 5 shipping costs, account number NL 42 INGB 0006 9281 68 stating On Friendship I, name and address.

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) V: Between Graveyard and Museum's Sphere is in preparation for 2023/24.

 

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