Photo by: www.AntonTal.com – @antontalphoto
Background
Exhibitions can be powerful tools of memory work. They do not only present objects or artworks; they can create public situations in which visitors encounter difficult histories, ask questions, move through space, listen, reflect and enter into dialogue. This is especially important when the histories being addressed are fragmented, erased, politically sensitive or dispersed across landscapes, archives and personal memories.
In the context of contemporary Jewish memory, exhibitions can serve several functions at once. They can make hidden histories visible, support artistic research, activate archival and landscape-based knowledge, and create encounters between artists, communities, scholars, activists and general audiences. They can also help address the tension between absence and presence: what is no longer there, what has been destroyed, what survives only in fragments, and what can still be remembered, documented or reimagined.
The following two examples show different exhibition-based approaches. Entropy, developed through the 2025 LABA Berlin Fellowship, used contemporary artistic practice to explore Jewish and Muslim perspectives on memory, rupture, diaspora and transformation. Landscape Archive / Archives du paysage, presented at Kazerne Dossin in Belgium, used photography, mapping and non-invasive research to make unmarked Holocaust burial sites in Poland visible to a wider public.
Together, these examples show that exhibitions can work not only as displays, but as public platforms for memory, research, dialogue and ethical attention
Case Study 5: Entropy – LABA Berlin Fellowship Exhibition, Berlin (Germany)
Context
The exhibition Entropy presented new works by eleven Jewish and Muslim artists based in Berlin. It explored erasure, fragmentation and transformation as forces shaping contemporary Jewish memory, diasporic life and minority experience.
The curatorial concept of entropy was used to think about historical rupture, archival absence and the instability of memory. By bringing Jewish and Muslim perspectives together, the exhibition created a space for reflecting on intertwined histories, cultural entanglement and contemporary life in Berlin.
Highlights
- New works by eleven Jewish and Muslim artists
- Focus on rupture, erasure, diaspora and transformation
- Multimedia works: sound, video, sculpture, installation and performance documentation
- Artist-led tours, short presentations, Q&A and informal conversations
- Over 1,100 visitors at the opening
- Public visibility for contemporary Jewish and minority artistic research
Description
The exhibition was developed through the 2025 LABA Berlin Fellowship. Between May and September 2024, fellows met with scholars, scientists and art practitioners to explore Jewish and Muslim theology, artivism and contemporary minority realities in Berlin.
The exhibition opened on 23 October 2025 at Künstlerhaus Bethanien. The programme included an introduction by the curatorial team, artist-led tours, short presentations at installations, Q&A sessions and informal conversation zones.
The works approached memory through diverse media and themes: submerged histories, lost civilisations, river walks, uncanny portraits, Gaza, media saturation, sand and erosion, Djinn and Dybbuk myths, Holocaust survivor histories, wedding ritual and mourning spaces. Together, they presented memory as fragile, unstable and transformed, but also as a source of artistic and political agency.
Visitors were invited to move through the exhibition with artists and curators, listen to short presentations, ask questions and engage in informal conversations. The audience included Jewish and Muslim community members, artists, curators, students, researchers, cultural workers and institutional representatives.
Photo by: www.AntonTal.com – @antontalphoto
Challenges
- HOW to present Jewish memory as fragile and transformed without reducing it to loss alone?
- HOW to include Jewish and Muslim perspectives without simplifying them into a single narrative?
- HOW to address contemporary violence and minority experience through art without didacticism?
Solutions
- Using a strong curatorial frame to connect diverse artistic works.
- Supporting artists through study sessions and interdisciplinary dialogue.
- Including multiple media so visitors can encounter memory through sound, image, object, text and space.
- Building public engagement into the opening through tours, Q&A and conversation zones.
Case Study 6: “Landscape Archive / Archives du paysage,” Belgium (Brussels)
Context
Landscapes can be a witness to violence. Places that appear empty or ordinary may contain traces of past events, including unmarked burial sites of Holocaust victims.
Landscape Archive / Archives du paysage presented research by the Zapomniane Foundation, which locates, documents, marks and commemorates unmarked Holocaust burial sites in Poland in accordance with Jewish religious law. The exhibition was shown at Kazerne Dossin in Belgium from 8 May to 30 June 2025, following an opening event on 6 May.
Highlights
- Presentation of unmarked Holocaust burial sites through photography and mapping
- Focus on non-invasive research respecting halakha
- Combination of analogue photography, geodetic measurements and coordinates
Description
The exhibition showed selected unmarked Holocaust burial sites in Poland through photographs, maps and coordinates indicating burial zones. It drew attention to places of memory that are often invisible in forests, fields, roadside ditches and everyday landscapes.
The research was based on non-invasive methods: archival work, local testimonies, field observation, geodetic measurements and visual documentation. To date, the Zapomniane Foundation has located around 300 previously unidentified burial sites in Poland, marked 100 and permanently commemorated around a dozen.
Photographs by Aleksander Schwarz were combined with precise geographic data. The exhibition also used visual icons inspired by ISOTYPE, the pictorial language developed by Otto Neurath, to make complex research accessible to a broad public.
Visitors encountered remote and often inaccessible burial sites through images, maps and guided interpretation. Curatorial tours helped audiences understand the research methods, ethical constraints and historical context. The exhibition created a transnational space of learning, connecting audiences in Belgium with memory work carried out in Poland.
Challenges
- HOW to show unmarked Holocaust graves without violating their sensitive status?
- HOW to represent sites that are visually ordinary or almost invisible?
- HOW to make non-invasive research understandable to a broad public?
Solutions
- Using photography, maps and coordinates instead of excavation.
- Treating landscape as evidence, not scenery.
- Providing curatorial interpretation to connect images with historical context.
- Using clear visual symbols to explain complex research.
Key Takeaways
- Exhibitions and contemporary art can make fragmented, dispersed, and often invisible histories visible without reducing them to a single narrative.
- Landscapes, material traces, and photographic practices can function as archives of violence when supported by careful ethical and historical interpretation.
- Artist-led and non-invasive approaches are essential for engaging with sensitive sites of memory, including Jewish burial grounds.
- Public programmes and informal spaces for discussion help audiences connect with complex histories and bring overlooked places of memory into wider public awareness.