storytelling. I am delighted that he has written short stories about his family specifically for the JMB, and has situated them in regard to objects from the collection. This encounter in the exhibition has been a very stimulating and inspiring experience for me personally, 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 exhibition, I want the visitors to know which part of her hand she would touch my face with, and what bedtime stories she would tell me each night. It should feel like kissing someone with your eyes closed: the sensation is clear, but cannot really be shared or completely articulated.”
All the stories will be available in the exhibition 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 translation.
The exhibition will be open until 5 February 2023.