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
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.
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
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.