Back to the Following. Beginnings of the Levantine Revolution

“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 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 the peace activist Yocheved Lifshitz 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.