Back to the Following. Beginnings of the Levantine Revolution
Lecture by Eran Schaerf as part of Ringvorlesung of the Institute of Fine Arts, orgnised by Studio Art and Space l Spatial Strategies from Prof. Iman Issa.
“They were Levantine enough to know that a person, however worthless, counts more than principles, however sacred.” Who are they? What does it mean to be Levantine enough? How can Levantine knowledge be acquired? Who presumes to consider a person worthless and by what standard? For Jacqueline Kahnaoff (1917-1979), a Levantine revolution that would replace Zionism was nothing less than the only chance for peace in a Middle East shaped by minorities. Instead of declaring the – social? political? semiotic? – Levantine revolution as a missed opportunity, I follow its recurring beginnings. My speaking position migrates between subjects and times – from Yocheved Lifshitz, who shakes hands with her Hamas kidnapper to say goodbye, to Mish Mish Effendi, the cartoon character of the Frenkel brothers, who use a propaganda film to denationalize the principle of “national defence”.
Eran Schaerf is an artist and author.
Projects include Günter Peter Straschek. Emigration-Film-Politics, Museum Ludwig Cologne, 2018, with Julia Friedrich; ‘Only Six Can Play This Game’, 2020, co-author: Eva Meyer; Levantinism: The Anachronic Possibilities of a Concept, 2021, co-author: Eva Meyer, bakonline.org; Blinded in Remembering the Present? Ask Franz, 2022, in Hijacking Memory. The Holocaust and the New Right, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin; Levantine Line Library, 2023, Galerie Zwinger, Berlin; Nomadesque, 2023, in Machinations, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Ein jüdischer Garten [A Jewish Garden], 2022, co-editors: Hila Peleg and Itamar Gov, Hanser Munich; Gesammeltes Deutsch, 2023, transversal.at.