That was great!
“The Jewish” in popular German television
That was great!
“The Jewish” in popular German television
The flood of images that has been pouring out full force every day on television for more than 60 years now is to be “decelerated” in the exhibition “That was great! ‘The Jewish’ in popular German television” and the publication of the same name.
The viewpoint adopted to slow things down is a very precise one: Namely to filter out “Jewishness” in popular German television and examine this more closely. But what exactly is “Jewishness”? How can this be detected and analyzed? With a total of 10 installations, the exhibition takes us on a journey through the history of mentalities and…
That was great!
“The Jewish” in popular German television
The flood of images that has been pouring out full force every day on television for more than 60 years now is to be “decelerated” in the exhibition “That was great! ‘The Jewish’ in popular German television” and the publication of the same name.
The viewpoint adopted to slow things down is a very precise one: Namely to filter out “Jewishness” in popular German television and examine this more closely. But what exactly is “Jewishness”? How can this be detected and analyzed? With a total of 10 installations, the exhibition takes us on a journey through the history of mentalities and attitudes into our own living rooms, and traces the filmic strategies used in the fictive representation of “Jewish” topics and figures. But the exhibition also looks more closely at popular media figures such as Hans Rosenthal, omnipresent on the screen for decades, taking a personal perspective based on the history of one individual. In this way, the question as to how “Jewishness” is treated on the television screen can be sensed but is consciously left hovering in (the exhibition) space. Last but not least, costumes and props from television productions, merchandising products, photos, and TV journals are an invitation to take a personal—or even nostalgic—look at one’s own socialization through “the box.”
Duration of exhibition
April 12 - November 6, 2011
Curator
Ulrike Heikaus
Architecture
Markus Dicklhuber and Jens Neuber, Munich
PUBLIKATION
Der Katalog zur Ausstellung
Der Begleitband zur Ausstellung nimmt in weiterführenden Essays das Fernsehprogramm noch einmal ganz genau unter die Lupe. Dabei werden unter anderem die Handlungsstränge einzelner Fernsehfilme und Serienformate, wie etwa Tatort oder Lindenstraße, verfolgt und „jüdische Figuren und Themen“ auf ihre ambivalente Bildsprache hin untersucht. Auch die Verhandlungen des „Jüdischen“ im DDR-Fernsehen und in der österreichischen Fernsehunterhaltung findet in dieser Publikation Beachtung. Nicht zuletzt wird Hans Rosenthal, der Titelgeber dieser Ausstellung, näher vorgestellt und das Spannungsfeld aufgezeigt, in der er sich als Alltagsbegleiter, Fernsehikone, jüdischer Überlebender und Zeitzeuge bewegt.