Jewish experience in Exile is an old one, and, more interestingly, a very long one. Accordingly, most Jewish culture was formed in a situation of exile and minority, not of national sovereignty. The diasporic living situation pushed Jewish communities to develop special means for staying intact, ways of circulating images, and maintaining rites and customs among the dispersed people. This reality also demanded a reluctant relation to power, affiliated with being an Other, to mixing with others while bearing difference; a certain ethics for living.

The word "Pzura" in Hebrew has two meanings: as a noun, meaning Diaspora; as an adjective in the feminine form, meaning scattered, dispersed, and loose. The research considers the following question: what are the performative expressions of diaspora? How would these be articulated in artistic means? How might working on the notion of diaspora in performance art generate new ways of thinking about political and social issues, and suggest alternative forms of living together?

The research will touch upon the communal role of text and the actions of interpretation and discussion that developed among Jews in exile. Because of the lack of common land, sovereign rule, and hegemonic power, text turned into an ex-territorial space of gathering. One of the departure points of this research project is to make the action of reading explicit and visible by embodying reading in various ways and constructing it as a participatory and communal routine. Reading is perceived then as an intimate activity as much as a social practice of connecting with others. Developing scores for reading together serves as an image for structures of living together, maintaining a shared practice, and frameworks for coexistence.

In this course of the investigation, diasporic elements will be translated into performative means, striving to establish a sensible space for political participation.

 

Supervisors

• Prof.dr. A. Haarmann
• Alice Lagaay
• Yair Lipshitz

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