Jewish families, collectors, and artists have been an integral part of Leipzig's cultural life since the 19th century. Their contributions and dedication, as well as their life stories, were erased from the city's memory by the persecution, expulsion, and murder under National Socialism. Their absence has left gaps. The Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig (MdbK) aims to bring the names and stories of pioneering Leipzig Jewish figures back into public awareness and into the museum. Since 2024, together with the artist Shlomit Lehavi and the writer Sharon Adler, it has been tracing these forgotten and obliterated connections to make them visible again.
In the first phase, the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig (MdbK), together with Sharon Adler, conducted research on forgotten Jewish figures. Twenty-eight individuals and families were identified in the archives of the Jewish Community of Leipzig, in city and state archives, and in the MdbK's own documentation. The selection of these individuals, who were the subject of more intensive research in the second phase of the project, was based on criteria developed by the project team. Among other things, the family histories were intended to reflect various aspects of social and cultural engagement as well as diverse connections to the museum. The biographies of Wilhelm Breslauer, Hermann and Toni Halberstam, Cläre Kirstein, Moritz Kraemer, and Laura Sonntag are central to the project.
As an artistic intervention and visualization of the results, Shlomit Lehavi's work "Making Empty Spaces Visible" is juxtaposed with Stephan Huber's donor mosaic in the foyer of the MdbK (Museum of Fine Arts). "Making Empty Spaces Visible"—an installation of digital drawings presented on a transparent screen—lies at the intersection of video, drawing, and interactive art. The work integrates spatially into the foyer, creating a place of remembrance within the MdbK.
The researched biographies are made available to visitors as audio files at an on-site listening station and online. The texts were created in collaboration with Sharon Adler, who also recorded them in German and English, thus lending her voice to the former Leipzig families.
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