On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) III
We have decided to follow up the art manifestation 'On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) III - The Third GaLUT: Baghdad, Jerusalem, Amsterdam' with an exchange of ideas in a separate section 'On Friendship / (Collateral Damage)’ on the digital platform http://rozenbergquarterly.com, see http://rozenbergquarterly.com/category/on-friendship-collateral-damage/
In 'On Friendship/(collateral Damage) III - The Third GaLUT: Baghdad, Jerusalem, Amsterdam' (7th of September 2019 - 19th of January 2020) artist Joseph Sassoon Semah shares his lost rich Jewish Babylonian cultural heritage through art and culture at 36 locations in Amsterdam. (see http://www.josephsemah.nl/onfriendship3/index.html)
By exchanging research, cultural heritage, art, exhibitions, performances, round-table discussions, interviews and video reports, articles on internet and an English version publication, knowledge, opinions and experiences have been shared, generating attention for a different outlook than the dominant Western one. By returning to the source of rich Jewish Babylonian traditions, the history of art and culture has been freed of one-sided information and interpretation. Awareness has specifically been raised for a Judaism where not only the Holocaust is a central issue, but a Judaism that also does justice to the rich Mizrahi culture.
Exile and the meaning of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, identity crises, the urgency for diversity and the necessity of refocusing on cultural heritage in museums and cultural institutions have been put on the agenda.
One thing we have learned hardly anyone knows anything about the Mizrahi heritage, that is the museums, the cultural institutions and the public. It is important that the underexposed histories and perspectives become part of Western history and its future. It needs a lot of attention to put the issues relating to Judeo-Arabic heritage on the agenda.
Artists, writers, poets, thinkers and researchers are invited to reflect on the underexposed histories and perspectives that would suit this new section ‘On Friendship / (Collateral damage). We like to integrate two important subjects: the cultural, political issue and the artistic activities. We are also determinate to integrate poetry: every month a different poet.
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