po:miejsca (post:places)
Post:places is a term I coined to describe locations that remain physically present yet are no-longer-Jewish. These include, for example, former synagogues, houses of prayer, or centers of daily Jewish communal life that today survive only as faint building outlines, commemorative plaques, cultural centers, or galleries. For years, these fragments of our everyday landscape were abandoned, neglected, unwanted—even though they stand as evidence of a vanished world and as an unavoidable element of the surroundings whose presence calls for a new idea.
Over the course of three summer months, I will visit selected po:places cared for by enthusiasts—the “guardians of Jewish memory.” I will perform small, intimate solo violin concerts. I will enter spaces that strongly emphasize their Jewish past as well as those that, at first glance, seem to have little to do with it anymore. The concerts will feature works by Jewish composers, but also pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach and—premiering—a new composition by Marcin Zdunik that combines Hasidic nigunim with the form of a fugue. I will also perform my own piece for violin and electronics, “there is almost no one left here anymore,” along with improvisations based on traditional nigunim.
CALENDAR:
6 July – Modliborzyce, Municipal Cultural Center, former synagogue
26 July – Żelechów, City Park (former synagogue)
27 July – Chmielnik (Synagogue, Świętokrzyski Shtetl Center)
10 August – Lesko (Synagogue Gallery)
29 August – Kielce (Planty 7/8)
7 September – Tarnów (Bimah of the Old Synagogue)
14 September – Mielec (former synagogue site)
28 September – Zamość (Synagogue)
20 October – Mszana Dolna, Library
9 November – Białystok, Miejsce. The Jewish Place.
Realized with the support of a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.