{"id":40520,"date":"2023-01-27T01:58:42","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T09:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=40520"},"modified":"2023-01-26T16:42:32","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T00:42:32","slug":"complexities-of-berlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2023\/01\/27\/complexities-of-berlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Complexities of Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photographer Jason Langer\u2019s perception of Germany and its capital, Berlin, is a complicated one, and his current exhibition at the Zack Gallery, Berlin: A Jewish Ode to the Metropolis, reflects those complexities. Organized in partnership with the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival, the exhibit is Langer\u2019s first show in Canada.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
\u201cBoys\u201d \u00a0(photo by Jason Langer)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Langer\u2019s newly published book, Berlin<\/em>, includes 135 black and white photographs. A selection of these images forms the exhibit at the Zack, which has an emotional sophistication of its own, even though the show is being promoted as a prologue for the book festival. Both the show and the book catalogue the artist\u2019s several trips to Berlin and his explorations of the city. They also provide visually compelling commentary on Langer\u2019s contradictory and evolving feelings for Germany.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
A Nazi uniform in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp museum in Berlin. \u00a0(photo by Jason Langer)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As in life, the then-and-now overlap and, occasionally, the juxtaposition of the past and the present are jarring in Langer\u2019s imagery. On the one hand, Germany is the country where the Holocaust originated, the country that erased its Jewish population almost entirely and spearheaded the destruction of the Jews of Europe. On the other hand, it is a modern country of laughing kids, hardworking people and beautiful architecture, a country that acknowledges its past actions and tries to make amends to the Jews. It is a country inspiring fear, hatred, respect and admiration in varying measures.<\/p>\n

Langer writes in an essay about his relationship with Germany and its progression from total negativity to growing understanding. When he was 6 years old, his family moved from his native United States to Israel, where he spent his formative years, until age 11, on a kibbutz.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, each children\u2019s house would visit the Holocaust memorial, located on the kibbutz property, during Yom Kippur…. We were asked to walk silently and led into a courtyard with one building and three short walls,\u201d writes Langer. \u201cI remember the walls were made of large, rectangular stones, grey in colour and a bit rough and oddly shaped. We learned about how the Jews had suffered, first as slaves in Egypt and then in the Holocaust by the Germans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, as an adult, he \u201cvaguely remembered having heard fearful stories of German people from my mother and grandmother, though my mother also made jokes about Germans, putting on a comic fake accent. She died in 2003 and I inherited her books, among other things, including a kind of illustrated encyclopedia titled The Wonderful Story of the Jews<\/em>, written by Jacob Gewirtz. It was published [in 1970], not long before our move to Israel. The text refers to the Germans\u2019 \u2018unspeakable crimes\u2019 against the Jews, as well as the \u2018unending ravages of war, persecution and tyranny\u2019 they had faced. Some of the illustrations are quite scary, showing buildings on fire and Jewish people menaced by gun-wielding Nazis. The book presents Israel as a place of refuge, the kibbutzim as almost unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

After being exposed to such ideas during childhood, Langer\u2019s predominant feeling towards Germany was aversion. But then, in 2008, when he was already an established photographer, one of his friends suggested he photograph Berlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe thought the city would be a good match for my sensibilities but I met his suggestion with trepidation and fear,\u201d Langer recalled. \u201cI harboured many preconceived ideas about Germans and Germany. I imagined Berlin as a vast, cold, unfriendly, gritty place, but, at the same time, it seemed exciting and sexy somehow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to see Berlin for myself, keen to challenge my existing ideas and also uncover reminders of the Jewish people who had lived there, until they fled or were hunted down and killed by the Nazis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photographer Jason Langer\u2019s exhibit at the Zack Gallery runs to Feb. 16. (photo from Jason Langer)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the next five years, Langer visited Berlin frequently. \u201cFrom 2009 to 2013,\u201d he said, \u201cI made five trips for two weeks at a time. I stayed in a flat with about six people. When they were going on vacation, they would let me know, and I would fly over and occupy their rooms. They would also give me advice on where to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

During those visits, he took multiple photographs and strived to form a new narrative regarding his feelings and associations regarding Germany and its people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work is an attempt to remember, confront and unwind my attitudes about Germans, Germany, Berlin and my Jewish inheritance; these images are part discovery, part remembrance and part fantasy,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey\u2019re my attempt to stand where Jewish people were rounded up and deported, to remember but also reassess. They\u2019re an effort to confront my internal attitudes and prejudices, to look into people\u2019s eyes and find a continuation of kindness, to be open to the happiness of contemporary life in Berlin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some photographs in the gallery are full of anguish and terrible beauty, like the Holocaust Memorial, consisting of 2711 concrete slabs (stelae<\/em>) of\u00a0 different heights, or an ornate door of the Stiftung Neue Synagogue, built in 1865, the only synagogue in Berlin to survive the war, though its interior was burnt.<\/p>\n

The horror of the war is also reflected in the image of an old, dilapidated shed, the \u201cgoat house,\u201d where one Jewish family, a mother and a daughter, hid for several years to survive the Nazis\u2019 attempt to exterminate Jews. No water, no heat, no electricity, just the women\u2019s indomitable spirits and relentless wish to live.<\/p>\n

Every photo has a story to tell. Many a story of heroism and tragedy. But there are other pictures, too, reflecting modern Berlin, the city of now. Laughing boys, a tired-looking woman, an anti-fascist demonstration, various streets and buildings.<\/p>\n

Langer writes: \u201cIt was a strange mix of death and life.\u2026 There was a sense of youth, freedom and joy I felt in Berlin.\u2026 Whenever I wandered, I took it as a gift of prolonged, uninterrupted time for reflection.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artist\u2019s wanderings and reflections led to the creation of the photobook Berlin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis book is not a document,\u201d said Langer. \u201cIt is a dream within a dream within another dream. Berlin is immense, there was no way I could cast a wide enough net to what it\u2019s like. Instead, I have painted a picture of then and now, pain and pleasure, some people who died long ago and those who are living and young, all from my own perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berlin: A Jewish Ode to the Metropolis opened on Jan. 6 and will continue at the Zack Gallery until Feb. 16. For more information, visit jasonlanger.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Olga Livshin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photographer Jason Langer\u2019s perception of Germany and its capital, Berlin, is a complicated one, and his current exhibition at the Zack Gallery, Berlin: A Jewish Ode to the Metropolis, reflects those complexities. Organized in partnership with the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival, the exhibit is Langer\u2019s first show in Canada. Langer\u2019s newly published book, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784,989],"tags":[9581,4041,53,22072,2747,9011,40],"class_list":["post-40520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-visual-arts","tag-berlin","tag-cherie-smith-jcc-jewish-book-festival","tag-holocaust","tag-jason-langer","tag-photography","tag-social-commentary","tag-zack-gallery"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}