2004
Florence, Galery of the Jewish Community "Art and
Judaism"
"Before I
speak about the Wall as metaphor, I would like to preface my
remarks. In my opinion, there exists today an obsession with
history. Every ethnic or national group is determined to
reconstruct its historical identity, because today there is a
general fear of losing one's identity as a result of
globalization. In fact, studies indicate that almost 2000
local languages are disappearing today. Among them is Yiddish,
the language of the home and of the marketplace in the
Ashkenazi world for centuries, and finally the language of a
great literature.
Certain groups are more obsessed about history than others. We
jews are one of these. We have always had a great interest in
history, in part for theological reasons, but also because we
are few in number and we have lived so long as a minority in
other people's countries and cultures.In any case, in my
opinion, since approximately the middle of the 19th century,
jews have undergone especially great cultural and sociological
"earthquakes". And after any great change, there is a
corresponding desire to understand why. For example, after the
expulsion from Spain in 1492, jews seached for an explanation
of Evil in the world, a search which, according to Gershom
Scholem, culminated in the Kabbalà of Isaac ben Luria.
In brief, some of the shocks which the Jewish world
experienced in the modern period are:
1) The development of different forms of Judaism: Conservative
and Reform Judaism, which have a different relationship to the
Mitzvot;
2)America as the Land of Opportunity. In my case, my parents
arrived as adults in America in the 1920's, poor and without
education. Yet I went to Yale University Law School and my
brother is a professor emeritus of physics. I know that this
kind of advancement had occurred also in certain parts of
Europe, but fascism and nazism changed everything;
3) The Shoah;
4)The foundation, or the return, to Israel.
I share this obsession for history with my people. And I have
searched for symbols and metaphors that would visualize this
concept and its impact on myself and on other jews.
I chose the Wall.
Empirically, the Wall is a very important entity in the Jewish
world. It's sufficient to recall the Wailing Wall,but there is
also the wall of the Warsaw ghetto. Every year, thousands of
jews and others go to Warsaw to see the fragments---just the
fragments---of this wall. And now there is another wall, the
wall in Israel. I don't know the name of this wall---- the
wall of separation, the wall of defense?--- and also I don't
know what the position of this wall will be in the collective
immaginary of us jews and of others. It is too soon to tell.
But I believe that it will be a very important wall in Jewish
history, a significant metaphor of an historical period.
But there are walls that are not made of brick and mortar.It's
clear that there are walls also within the Jewish community
that are the results of history and also the causes. And there
is also obviously a psychological component: there are walls
inside all of us.
So every symbol is a source of identity: it tells us how to
define ourselves, and it tells others how to define us. But
from another point of view, the Wall is a page upon which
history writes itself. I have tried to combine these two
concepts. In these paintings, it 's possible to see Jewish
culture as a living thing: certain paintings resemble a tree,
with roots and branches, or a human body, with veins and
arteries--- as if it was a self-portait of our history. In
others, there are traces and lines, which suggest books, words,
and letters. But one does not see words or letters, because a
painting does its work by indirection. Certain things cannot
be said; this is the place of art. Maybe the explanation is
that there is no explanation. Or perhaps it is beyond our
capacity to understand. G-d and G-d's reasons are not
comprehensible. Art is an attempt to describe this
incomprehensibility. Therefore, art does not, and does not
want to, substitute for G-d in any idolatrous sense. It is
instead an expression of the same mystery.
