Jewich Relationship Stories

The light, translu­cent fab­rics, the long, col­or­ful rib­bons right at the begin­ning and the most won­der­ful embroi­dery attract atten­tion: A large, time­ly group pic­ture, a tru­ly col­or­ful col­lage of con­tem­po­rary and his­tor­i­cal cit­i­zens of the city, wel­comes the vis­i­tors. The unusu­al nail lac­ing signs, which are con­stant­ly woven into the tex­tile sur­faces and walls, then guide the vis­i­tors through the dif­fer­ent top­ics. The tex­tile walls are both dis­play for the most diverse exhibits and them­selves ​“speak­ing”, in which they embody the course of the sto­ries through col­or and fab­ric qual­i­ties. Espe­cial­ly towards the end, the col­ors in the fab­ric fade — the anti-Semit­ic inci­dents and their symp­to­matic dam­age leave their mark. They become black and white gray until they are com­plete­ly over.

With the fire of the syn­a­gogue, through whose image the vis­i­tors inevitably have to leave, the scenog­ra­phy changes rad­i­cal­ly: Behind it are only charred remains of the Jew­ish assem­bly house, the rib­bon of sol­i­dar­i­ty — the his­to­ry of the rela­tion­ship is final­ly torn down. This becomes clear in the pho­to­graph­ic project instal­la­tion, on which the Jew­ish cit­i­zens ​“dis­ap­per” in con­tem­po­rary group pho­tos and an oppres­sive empti­ness is cre­at­ed. This empti­ness is dri­ven to the visu­al and tac­tile tip in the fol­low­ing space, the white, infi­nite, round archive. Only through the active open­ing of var­i­ous doors do the exhibits of rob­bery in Laupheim, the Aryaniza­tion, the expul­sion and exter­mi­na­tion become apparent.

Through a long, again emp­ty and only pro­ject­ed quo­ta­tions from cor­re­spon­dence and speech­es of the years 1948 – 1988 filled first post-war space, which describes the speech­less­ness and weigh­ing strate­gies of the author­i­ties and an amaz­ing re-accom­ing in the 1980s, the vis­i­tors final­ly get to the last, prob­a­bly also key room of the new­er ​“rela­tion­ship his­to­ry” of Laupheim. In this part of the cas­tle used to be the heavy boil­ers of the asso­ci­at­ed brew­ery. The now exposed con­crete grid ceil­ing points to this func­tion­al back­ground and is at the same time the ​“back­ground” for a very own stag­ing of so-called object wit­ness­es: exhibits of Jew­ish life that have come back to Laupheim in a most­ly unusu­al way. Keep­ing them mount­ed not on pedestals, but in the sus­pen­sion of steel cables from the ceil­ing to the floor, shows their still volatile, not yet rec­on­cil­ing existence.