For over four decades, the internationally acclaimed photographer Frédéric Brenner has been questioning through his lens the multiple appearances and representations of Jewish life in diaspora, as a case study of the human condition.
His new photographic essay, ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES, was created between 2016 and 2019, when he explored Berlin as stage for a vast spectrum of expressions and performances of Jewishness. Portraying landscapes and individuals — newcomers, old-timers, converts, immigrants and others who have made Berlin their home or were just passing through — he picks apart prevailing ideas and conceptions in order to explore new perspectives and offers a fresh view of issues and people in and around the Jewish-German story.
Past exhibition
Where
Libeskind Building, ground level, Eric F. Ross Gallery
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
Frédéric Brenner’s images evolve from extensive research, observation, and many, many conversations. To him, taking pictures means, first and foremost, encounters with individuals to whom he offers space to (re)present themselves.
Not pretending to bring forth a rigorous account of the Jewish situation in Germany today nor a visual definition of the contemporary Jew, he offers a series of fragmentary insights into this incubator of paradox and dissonance, reflecting on conflicting narratives of redemption and shedding light on an ever-so-present absence.
A Small Glimpse into the Photographic Essay
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
From the photographic essay ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES by Frédéric Brenner, JMB, purchased with the support of the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin
Like a shattered mirror, his images offer a polyphonic, sometimes bizarre and disturbing reflection of and on a topography of displacement and estrangement, far beyond the story of Berlin or of Jews. Avoiding the possibility to add up to an all-inclusive and definitive statement, these fragments invite viewers to reweave them into ever-changing stories.
Impressions from the Exhibition
View of the exhibition; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jule Roehr
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View of the exhibition; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jule Roehr
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View of the exhibition; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jule Roehr
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View of the exhibition; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jule Roehr
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View of the exhibition; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jule Roehr
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View of the exhibition Frédéric Brenner – ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jule Roehr
“Healed to pieces”?
Abnormality in language seeks a translation into images, music, dance, and theater.
First as a fellow at Berlin’s Wissenschaftkolleg and then as a regular apartment tenant, a flâneur on the Berlin streets, Frédéric Brenner meditates; converses with kindred spirits, friends, and strangers; and discovers that this city’s Jewish community allows him to advance and re-interrogate his lifelong subject of human identity.
Between ostensibly eccentric and ostensibly normative lifestyles that come into view in his subject’s faces and on their stages, the viewer pushes up against the boundaries and the senselessness of judgments and determinations.”
(Thomas Struth, Berlin, 7 October 2021)
View of the exhibition Frédéric Brenner – ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jule Roehr
“ZERHEILT is an inspiring photographic exhibition; more than an exhibition, it is an experience. The ‘mise en scene’ is a fascinating composition of faces, bodies and places that can be interpreted and seen in many ways through the innovative exhibition design.
The photographs are powerful and profound. It is an exhibition not to be missed.”
(Daniel Libeskind)
View of the exhibition Frédéric Brenner – ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jule Roehr
“Thank you for that great exhibition”
“Beautiful composition”
“Wonderful Colorful Joy-bringing Inspiring Pure Art at its best!”
“Absolutely stunning. Thank you”
“Wow Impressiv Unpressionitic Real and Unreal”
(Voices from the guestbook)
View of the exhibition Frédéric Brenner – ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jule Roehr
“Seldom in my almost fifty years in the field of photography and viewing hundreds of exhibitions have I seen such a show. The installation, the architecture, the alliance of the photographer, the space, and the photographs themselves must be seen as a uniform statement of inventive excellence. One experiences space and light, meaning and relevance in a brand new way. I cannot wait to go back for more!”
(Howard Greenberg)
View of the exhibition Frédéric Brenner – ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jule Roehr
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been so touched and intriged by a photo exhibition. Stunning photos and well installed in this space. Thank you for the beautiful experience”
“Thank you for this masterpiece”
“Thank you for such a surreal experience. Everything evokes a very strong sense of connect.”
(Voices from the guestbook)
The Jewish Museum Berlin will premiere ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES starting September 2021.
We would like to thank the Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin for purchasing the photographic essay for the JMB collection.
Exhibition Information at a Glance
- When3 Sep 2021 to 24 Apr 2022
- WhereLibeskind Building, ground level, Eric F. Ross Gallery
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
See Location on Map
Exhibition Frédéric Brenner – ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES: Features & Programs
- Exhibition Webpage
- Current page: Frédéric Brenner – ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES – 3 Sep 2021 to 24 Apr 2022
- Publications
- Frédéric Brenner: ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES – 2021, publication accompanying the exhibition
- Accompanying Events
- Hevrutah: Zerheilen – Healing to Pieces – an invitation to learn together
- See also
- Frédéric Brenner, photographer
- Digital Content
- Without the Leaves, I Would Not Have Started – essay by Frédéric Brenner on ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES, 2021
- Staging Jewishness – video recording of the artist talk with Frédéric Brenner, 2022
- ZERHEILT: HEALED TO PIECES – The Subjects Pose with Their Portraits – photos and interviews about Jewish life in Berlin, 2021/22
- Hevrutah on Memory/Place – video recording, with Yemima Hadad, Netanel Olhoeft, Dekel Peretz, and Barbara Steiner, 2021, in German with English subtitles
- Hevrutah on Otherness/Responsibility – video recording, with Liad Hussein Kantorowicz, Benyamin Reich, Irene Runge, and Adam Joachim Goldmann, 2021, in German with English subtitles
- Hevrutah on Homeland/Diaspora – video recording, with Akiva Weingarten, Sonia Simmenauer, Elad Lapidot, and Aviva Ronnefeld, 2022, in German with English subtitles
