Dagesh is dedicated to bringing new visibility to Jewish artists through exhibitions, readings, art and literature festivals, public discussions and collaborations.
New visibility for jewish artists
Since its founding in 2016, the Dagesh ArtLAB has supported Jewish artists through the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk scholarship fund. This has given Dagesh access to an established, excellent network of young, dedicated artists.
In June 2020, a cultural education branch was added to Dagesh. Its program, Dagesh on Tour, focuses on the personal mediation of art as a socially effective practice.
Where we are now
Jewish life in Germany today is more diverse than ever. This diversity finds expression in current works by young Jewish artists. Contemporary Jewish art in Germany tends to grapple with themes related to the interaction between Jewish communities, Jewish cultures and mainstream German society.
Considering the (sometimes tense) relationship with German non-Jewish society as well the long history – and current manifestations – of antisemitism and racism here, it is no surprise that Jewish plurality can trigger friction and conflict.
Part of the German “We”
Dagesh grapples with manifold themes: Experiences and stories of migration, questions about belonging and identity (or identities), the positions of minorities and the dynamics of intersectionality, confrontations with family, religion, history, politics, sexuality and gender, exclusion and violence.
Despite the fact that there are well over 200,000 Jews living in Germany today, mainstream society still considers them to be “foreign,” standing on the fringes of German and European society and not part of the German “we.” Art and emancipatory art education offer us the opportunity to reflect together on Jewish life in Germany, to tell the outside world about Jewish life, and to challenge stereotypes and attributions of foreignness.
*A Dagesh is a small dot in the center of some characters in the Hebrew and Yiddish alphabets. In itself it has no meaning, but it can affect the meaning of a word by adding emphasis. Which is exactly what art can do: set accents and shift meanings.
Prof. Dr. Arnold Dreyblatt, Visual Arts
Prof. Dr. Anat Feinberg, Literature
Tobias Herzberg, Theater Direction
Cilly Kugelmann, Curation
Sarah Nemtsov, Music, Composition
Jo Frank grew up in Southend-on-Sea, Kiel and Heidelberg. He studied English and American Language and Literature at Humboldt University Berlin and Holocaust Comunication at Touro College Berlin. Jo Frank is founder of and lector with Verlagshaus Berlin, member and founder of Ensemble Zeitkunst and works as a multilingual writer and translator.
back
Yana Lemberska ist seit November 2020 Referentin des kulturellen Bildungsprogramms Dagesh on Tour. Als langjährige Mitarbeiterin des Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerks und ehemalige ELES-Stipendiatin, war sie u.a. am Aufbau und Entwicklung der ELES-Grundförderung und Gestaltung der ideellen Förderung maßgebend beteiligt. Yana Lemberska verfügt über einschlägige Erfahrungen in der interkulturellen Bildungsarbeit.
Ihr Studium in Kunstgeschichte schloss Yana Lemberska an der Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg ab und ihr Folgestudium in Jüdischen Studien an der Hochschule für Jüdische Studien in Heidelberg sowie an der Tel Aviv University. Schwerpunkte ihrer Studien und Praxis: Immigration, Mehrsprachigkeit, Zugehörigkeiten, fluide und hybride Identitätskonzepte, Sichtbarkeit, Pluralität, gegenwärtige Postholocaustdiskurs und Erinnerungsnarrative, Diversität des jüdischen Lebens in Deutschland.
back
Maria Sand ist seit Oktober 2020 Teil des Dagesh Teams. Die Veranstaltungskauffrau und Kommunikationswissenschaftlerin arbeitete zuvor in den Bereichen Kunst, Kultur und Event in Berlin, Dresden und Vilnius, in der Unternehmenskommunikation von Einrichtungen für Menschen mit Behinderungen, sowie in der Erwachsenenbildung im Fraunhofer-Marketing-Netzwerk.
Ihr Studium schloss sie an der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena und dem Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Irland (Kommunikationswissenschaften und Kunstgeschichte, B.A.) ab. Ihren Master in Angewandter Medienforschung absolvierte sie an der Technischen Universität Dresden. Schwerpunkt ihrer akademischen Recherche adressierte die Existenz linken Antisemitismus und den Einfluss der Pegida-Bewegung auf das Image Dresdens.
Vermittlungs- und Bildungsarbeit sieht Maria Sand als ein treibendes Vehikel, um z.B. Herkunft und Gender nicht zu einem Hindernis, sondern zu einem positiven Aspekt der Identität junger Menschen zu machen und damit eine diverse Gesellschaft zu fördern und zu formen.
back
Zsófia Bihari is working from 2022 on as an expert for the cultural education programme Dagesh on Tour. The time before she was educational expert for several extracurricular programmes in Budapest and Berlin. As project manager at the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) she was responsible for the exhibition FUTUROMA at the Biennale Arte of Venice.
As scientific employee at Humboldt-University Berlin she focused on diaspora, critical Roma and Jewish studies. She graduated from Humboldt-University as a B.A. in Kulturwissenschaften and a M.A of the Institute of Eastern European Studies (FU Berlin). Zsófia Bihari is alumna of the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk.
back
Daniel Laufer works for Dagesh as curator. He studied from 1999 to 2004 at Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (Birgit Hein, Marina Abramovic and Walter Dahn). 2004 he graduated in the masterclass of Walter Dahn. During the last years Daniel Laufer could show his works in numerous exhibitions such as Artists Space, New York, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Kunstmuseum Bonn and Jüdisches Museum Berlin. In 2019 he curated for Dagesh the exhibition “Looking Back – Thinking Ahead”.
back