INSIDE OUT.
ETGAR KERET IN BERLIN
With these short stories, Keret draws an explicit connection to the Jewish tradition of passing down memories from generation to generation. He recalls experiences he had with his mother, who was born in Poland in 1934, and recounts stories she told him as a child, including ordinary anecdotes but also traumatic wartime experiences and encounters with violence.
The narrative voice alternates between the perspective of an adult and that of a child. Keret makes no claim that these literary writings depict reality or paint a complete picture of his mother. On the contrary, he emphasizes that such an attempt would be doomed to failure, and also wants the exhibition to illustrate the uncertain and fragmentary nature of his memory.
The short stories are presented alongside objects from the JMB collection selected by Etgar Keret as well as two installations, a piece of video art, and illustrations created by contemporary artists in collaboration with the author. Etgar Keret aims to defy museumgoers’ expectations with this exhibition. He has no intention of imparting information or explaining anything to them, but instead hopes to share partial and un¬verifiable memories of his late mother with them. Through the interplay of memories, objects, and art installations, the exhibition will forge evocative spaces that stir up feelings and associations.
“The Jewish Museum Berlin wants its exhibitions to tell stories about Jewish life,” says Hetty Berg, Director of the JMB, “and Etgar Keret is beyond doubt a master of story¬telling. I am delighted that he has written short stories about his family speci-fically for the JMB, and has situated them in regard to objects from the collection. This encounter in the exhi¬bition has been a very stimu¬lating and inspiring expe-rience for me perso¬nally, and I hope that visitors feel similarly and that they will all find their own very unique points of entry.”
Etgar Keret himself says that he wants the visitors to get a sense of his mother, but without them having any objective details about her. This way, he says, they will learn about her just as he did: “Instead of sharing her parents’ names or her date of birth in the exhi¬bition, I want the visitors to know which part of her hand she would touch my face with, and what bed¬time stories she would tell me each night. It should feel like kissing someone with your eyes closed: the sensa¬tion is clear, but cannot really be shared or completely arti¬culated.”
All the stories will be available in the exhi¬bition itself – and, after it opens, on the JMB website – in three languages, in both print and audio versions. Etgar Keret has recorded himself reading his pieces in Hebrew and English, and the award-¬winning writer Daniel Kehlmann has narrated the German trans¬lation.
The exhibition will be open until 5 February 2023.
Taking memories of his mother as his point of departure, the Israeli author Etgar Keret has written nine new short stories specifically for the exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. It had its world premiere on 21 October.
Jewish Museum Berlin
Edgar Keret. Photo: Lielle Sand