Talking about Utopia

By -
Oded Hirsch, Halfman, 2009. Chromogenic print, 40 x 50 in. Courtesy of the artist & Thierry Goldberg Gallery, New York. 


Every fall, just after the holiday of Yom Kippur, Jews build a sukkah—an outdoor booth, open on one side, with a roof porous enough to see the stars. And here (traditionally) they eat and sleep for eight days, making a point of inviting in strangers for meals, and trusting in the fragility of the structure and the safety of their surroundings. Not unlike Burning Man, where each summer thousands of people set up temporary homes in the Nevada desert as part of a pop-up utopia, the ancient sukkah reminds us of the possibilities of a better world.

This fall the CJM presents two complementary exhibitions—one about utopia, the other about the kibbutz—that ask fundamental questions about a perfectable community. In To Build & Be Built: Kibbutz History, the Museum explores the creation and evolution of this unique Israeli socialist venture. And in Work in Progress: Considering Utopia, three artists explore Israel (and art) as a stage upon which our most optimistic societal dreams get played out.

What we know about the world, and from the word utopia (Greek for “no place”), is that perfection is not within our grasp; but the struggle for perfection is. Jewish commentators often point to the moment when the biblical patriarch Jacob wrestled with the angel in the desert at Beth El, and through this painful struggle emerged with a new name—Israel, or “one who struggles.”

The state of Israel—that modern miracle of Jewish modernity—is also a place of struggle. It is a small country, beset by regional conflict and internal strife, which wrestles constantly with its own possibilities and contradictions. It is at the same time a place of endless innovation and inspiration, which has profoundly influenced American Jewish life in its sixty-five years of existence. One need only look to Jewish summer camps (the closest many have come to utopia) to see the influence of the kibbutz, with its communal dining room, emphasis on song and dance, and belief in something greater than just the individual experience.

As a community institution exploring contemporary life through a Jewish prism, The CJM is committed to bringing the best Israeli art to the Bay Area as part of a dialogue with a country that is still a “work in progress.” Contemporary Israeli art has taken a proud place in the international museum scene, representing the country’s bold, critical, and often self-critical vision of a better future. It is especially well known for its focus on video and performance art (as well as dance), collectively represented by the work of Oded Hirsch and Ohad Meromi in Work in Progress (which also includes newly commissioned art by SF-based American artist Elisheva Biernoff.)

For Meromi and Hirsch, who were born on a kibbutz, that community’s collective idealism has been transformed into art. Hirsch’s videos in Work in Progress, of kibbutzniks engaged in various communal projects, suggest that the very act of working together may be the best criterion of progress. And in Meromi’s stage-like installation, inspired by a table in the kibbutz dining room, the invitation for visitors to stop, talk, and literally act out their ideas about utopia becomes a model for “real world” social improvement.

The Talmud, the ancient book of Jewish law, stories, and wisdom, offers a saying that has inspired The CJM’s work with these two exhibitions, “You are not obligated to finish the task [of perfecting the world], but neither are you free from attempting it.” In other words, although no exhibition can do justice to the complexity of the Israeli experience, and no utopian art can heal the wounds of a broken and imperfect world, we are obligated to create an honest and supportive platform for conversation and engagement. What else is a contemporary Jewish museum for?

About the Author
Daniel Schifrin is Writer-in-Residence at the CJM and host of its podcast series “The Space Between.” He is a columnist for both the J: Jewish News Weekly of Northern California and the New York Jewish Week, and his articles and essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and McSweeney’s. In 2007 he was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and he has just finished his first novel, a comedy about chess, opera and orthodontia.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“A Gentile’s House”: Lolita and the Holocaust

By -
Image
Along with stories of illicit sex and human derangement, Stanley Kubrick and Vladimir Nabokov both dreamed of making art about the Holocaust. Nabokov, a three-time refugee from totalitarian governments, famously rejected literature bearing social messages. Yet at the end of his seventh decade, he vowed to his first biographer that he would one day tackle Nazi terror. “I will go to those German camps and look at those places and write a terrible indictment.” 1 Decades later Kubrick made real progress toward his goal: he drafted a script, cast lead actors, and scouted a location in the Czech Republic for a film with the working title Aryan Papers . Yet neither man would complete his project. Lolita , their only collaboration, somehow survived the censors, despite a plot centered on a professor’s cross-country travel and multi-year sexual abuse of his stepdaughter. While the subject of the movie stands at some distance from genocide, Nabokov’s 1955 novel and Kubrick’s 1962 film e...
Read more

Brought to You by the Letter "Peh"

By -
Image
Thoughts from scribe-in-residence Julie Seltzer on what she's writing, her process, and the experience of writing a Torah on public view. One of the questions I am often asked is, “Do you have a favorite letter?” The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet (or 27, if you count the five letters that take a different form when they appear at the end of a word) feel in some ways like children. How can one have a favorite? But even with children the Torah reports to us certain leanings at certain times (“Now Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game; and Rebekah loved Jacob.” Genesis 25:28). Similarly, different letters bring unique joy, new connection, and insight at different times. Past “favorites” have included the Bet , the Gimmel , and the Chet . My current leanings are toward the letter Peh , and I’ll explain why. [These Hebrew letters spelled out, by the way, are all valid Scrabble words, FYI.]
Read more

Cats: The Beat Generation’s Secret Love Affair

By -
Image
Burberry as Jack Kerouac Created in conjunction with the San Francisco SPCA  All photography by Rod Kilpatrick A lot of the cats at the San Francisco SPCA have had beat lives. Living in backyards, alleys, and abandoned buildings, they have been deserted by their families. Some of the female felines are impregnated and left to care for their litter. And yet these creatures still persevere. They lead dignified lives full of spirit and love. They are open and ready for new relationships at a moment’s notice, much like the Beats. For example, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Allen Ginsberg all fall in love with multiple people in the beloved Beat bible,  On the Road. These cats, more importantly, are survivors. They have lived outside of society, looking in, observing, and wanting to be part of it.
Read more