A once-off opportunity to have supper with creators of the Museum’s ‘Zakhor!’ exhibition, the night after it opens to the public and the day before they return to Germany and Lithuania.
This Culture Connect starts at 6h15pm with the Museum’s Director, Gavin Morris, giving a brief tour of the museum. He will also explain the relevance of this internationally selected and touring show (most South African Jews have Lithuanian ancestry).
Guests will be able to come any time after 5pm when the Museum closes. Drinks and nibbles will be served at the Museum entrance (the old shul) from 5h45.
Our sit-down supper will be at 7pm in the stunning atrium by ‘Zakhor!’
The curator Dr Elke-Vera Kotowski of Potsdam University, will give a short talk and two of the exhibiting artists will be joining us.
Event Date: Thursday, 5 May 2016
Event Times: From 5pm to 9pm
Places are limited and pre-payment is essential – R350 per head ‘early bird’ pre-21 April, then R400 (payment on the day R600). This includes kosha supper, wine, digital catalogue of ‘Zakhor!’ and a voucher to visit the Museum for free entry at another time.
For this event the Museum is collaborating with Culture Connect for the first time. Book soon via it’s founding director, Kate Crane Briggs: kate@cultureconnectsa.com (072 377 8014 or 021 685 1782).
Please EFT to Capitec, account name: Mrs K D Briggs; no: 1435584242 (sort code: 47 00 10); reference with your name and Zakhor!
(If you would prefer to pay by cash please let Kate know.)
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Leading Lithuanian contemporary artists to exhibit at the South African Jewish Museum
4 May 2016 – an exhibition of 34 paintings by leading Lithuanian contemporary artists will open at the SA Jewish Museum. The exhibition, entitled ‘Zakhor! Imaginations of the former Jewish Vilne in modern Lithuanian Art’, explores the Jewish cultural influences on Vilne, the capital of Lithuania. Zakhor is a Hebrew word meaning Remember.
Remember. Prior to World War II, Vilne (as Vilnius is referred to in Yiddish) was a world centre of Jewish learning. Often referred to as “The Jerusalem of the North”, Jewish faith, life and culture had thrived in Lithuania for hundreds of years. This era ended in the Holocaust and today only 5000 Jews remain from the estimated 200 000 that lived in Lithuania prior to WWII.
The South African Jewish community is predominantly descended from this community. Known as Litvaks (Jews with Lithuanian roots) most South African Jews can trace their ancestry to Litvaks who arrived in South Africa between the 1880’s and the 1930’s.
The curators of the exhibition, eager to keep the memory of this important community alive, called on (non-Jewish) Lithuanian artists to explore, conceive and present their personal interpretation of Vilne’s lost Jewish heritage. ‘Zakhor!’ is the result of this project, a group exhibition of 34 paintings by preeminent Lithuanian artists, each individually interpreting this amputated aspect of their country’s past.
Linas Liandzbergis, I will Whisper to You Softly, 2015. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100cm
The exhibition is in Cape Town as part of a world tour. Having opened in Vilne and already been presented in Berlin, the exhibition will be travel on to Tel Aviv and Buenos Aires after its run at the SA Jewish Museum.
Arūnė Tornau, Hanged man, 2012-2014. Oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm
Opens at SAJM on Wednesday 4 May and runs until 12 June.
The curators or some of the contributing artists will be available for live interviews from 4- 5 May. Email or telephonic interviews can be arranged outside of these dates. Please contact Gavin Morris (Gavin@sajewishmuseum.co.za / 021 465 1246) to arrange.
