Exhibition Opening of Inside Out – Etgar Keret

The short stories will be presented along­side objects from the JMB collection selected by Etgar Keret as well as two installations, a piece of video art, and illus­trations created by contem­porary artists in colla­boration with the author. Etgar Keret aims to defy museum­goers’ expec­tations with this exhibition. He has no intention of imparting infor­mation or explaining anything to them, but instead hopes to share partial and un­verifiable memories of his late mother with them. Through the interplay of memories, objects, and art installations, the exhibition will forge evocative spaces that stir up feelings and asso­ciations.

“The Jewish Museum Berlin wants its exhi­bitions to tell stories about Jewish life,” says Hetty Berg, Director of the JMB, “and Etgar Keret is beyond doubt a master of story­telling. I am delighted that he has written short stories about his family speci­fically for the JMB, and has situated them in regard to objects from the collection. This encounter in the exhi­bition has been a very stimu­lating and inspiring expe­rience for me perso­nally, and I hope that visitors feel similarly and that they will all find their own very unique points of entry.”

Etgar Keret himself says that he wants the visitors to get a sense of his mother, but without them having any objective details about her. This way, he says, they will learn about her just as he did: “Instead of sharing her parents’ names or her date of birth in the exhi­bition, I want the visitors to know which part of her hand she would touch my face with, and what bed­time stories she would tell me each night. It should feel like kissing someone with your eyes closed: the sensa­tion is clear, but cannot really be shared or completely arti­culated.”

All the stories will be available in the exhi­bition itself – and, after it opens, on the JMB website – in three languages, in both print and audio versions. Etgar Keret has recorded himself reading his pieces in Hebrew and English, and the award-­winning writer Daniel Kehlmann has narrated the German trans­lation. Kehlmann, a friend of Keret’s, will also participate in the exhi­bition’s accompanying event programming. The JMB will be hosting a dis­cussion with them both, including a reading, on November 29, 2022. Two days prior, on 27 November 2022, Etgar Keret and his wife Shira Geffen will be present at the screening of the miniseries The Middleman (2019), which they co-wrote and co-directed. Two writing workshops incorporating an exhi­bition tour and lunch, on 20 November and 12 December, round out the accompa­nying program.