How might we create a home where we are? Over the course of his three-week residency, Jonathan Berger and a community of craftspeople with whom he often works will construct a handmade scale model attempting to accurately document Kaunas, Lithuania, circa 1941, just before the city came under Nazi occupation. The artist will juxtapose this project with archival materials from the writer and activist Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, who is known for her notion of “radical diasporism”—a non-nationalist form of Jewish identity. Selections from Kaye/Kantrowitz’s archive will be presented in collaboration with her estate and her close friend and frequent editor, journalist Esther Kaplan.
The completed model is based on the research of amateur cartographer Marija Oniščik and will form the first chapter in a project that weaves together political and personal history. Berger’s residency is informed by the story of his mother, who as a young Jewish child was hidden by a Christian family in Kaunas during World War II, and Berger’s own involvement as a teenage member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, where Kaye/Kantrowitz served as the first executive director. Working collectively, Berger and his collaborators create an occasion to consider stateless forms of belonging and solidarity across different times, places, and communities.
The studio will be open to the public on Friday evenings and weekends during the residency. Open evenings and weekends are included with Museum admission. Open hours on Friday evenings will take place on August 8 and 15. Open hours on weekends will take place on August 9, 10, 16, 17, and 24.
The residency will also include a day of public programs on Saturday, August 23.
Organized by Thomas Lax, Curator, with May Makki, former Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance, and Cam McEwen, Studio Museum/MoMA Fellow. Produced by Lizzie Gorfaine, Associate Director of Performances and Live Programs, with Aminah Ibrahim, Assistant Performance Coordinator, Performance and Live Programs.
