Curated by Jaroslavs Romanovičs, “Destruction Is and Is Not Forever” openned to the public on 15th May—the 110th anniversary of the artist’s family’s deportation. The exhibition was held in Sabile Arts and Cultural Center and ran through 15th July.
As part of the opening events, the artist gathered thirty individuals from all over the world for a closed Friday Night Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony and dinner. Acting as chazan, ezell lead a traditional prayer service in the building, resurrecting sounds that have not been heard in over a century. Relevant press regarding the project can be found below along with a small sample of artworks. Click the title of the work for more information.
Relevant Press:
Interview with the artist, emet ezell, kultura enter magazine (English)
“Destruction Is and Is Not Forever,” an interview with emet ezell, in Geveb (English)
Reportage, by Katarzyna Michalak, Radio Lublin (Polish)
Interview with the artist, emet ezell, kultura enter magazine (Polish)
Finding a Language After Destruction (Atrast vārdus pret iznīcību), Liepajniekiem (Latvian)
Radio feature, Latvijas Radi0 1 (Latvian)
Local feature, Talsi Municipality (Latvian)
All photographs courtesy of Ben Mönks.
MAP TO FUTURE
490mm X 700mm; edition of 18. Printed on handmade blue paper with white and black cellulose and glucose. Typeset with Frank Rühl 20pt (Hebrew) and Rex 60pt and 20pt.
UNLEASH THE NAME
490mm X 700mm; edition of 18. Printed on 1970’s map paper. Typeset with Frank Rühl 20pt (Hebrew) and Futura 6pt. Kabbalistic “Name of Seventy Two” interlaced with poem.
MAP TO DISAPPEARED
500mm x 700mm; edition of 18. Printed on handmade blue paper using black and white cellulose and glucose. Typeset with various sizes of Rex and Frank Rühl 20pt (Hebrew). Rex was frequently used for obituary announcements in Polish Newspapers.
AND I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD FOREVER
500mm x 700mm; edition of 14. Printed on 1970’s map paper. Typeset with Antyqua Tourneyska 24pt, Frank Rühl 24pt (Hebrew), and Fedra 8pt (Hebrew, Cursive). Hebrew title enters poem like a shovel; Yiddish spellings replace Sabile and Latvia in the poem.
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