Bunker West Berlin
November 13 – 27
Opening 13. November at 7 PM
Bunker West, Hohenzollerndamm 120, 14199 Berlin
Art Spiegelman, Alex Melamid, Marat Guelman, Michail Grobman, Yury Kharchenko
Overview
The exhibition Bad / Good Jews brings together five outstanding Jewish artists: Alexander Melamid, Yury Kharchenko, Art Spiegelman, Marat Guelman and Michael Grobman. The curators are Aljoscha Samjatin and Yury Kharchenko.
At its core, the exhibition addresses the question of Jewish identity in the 21st century. October 7, 2023 – the Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians – marked a turning point. It evokes memories of the Shoah and highlights the continued vulnerability of Jewish life worldwide. Today, Jews are targeted by both right-wing antisemitism (Holocaust denial, ethnonationalist ideologies) and left-wing antisemitism (justification of terror, demonization of Israel). In European cultural discourse, this manifests as a dangerous split between “good” and “bad” Jews – depending on political narratives.
Bad / Good Jews resists such labeling. The exhibition explores how art reflects and transforms historical trauma, religious tradition, digital technologies, and political rupture. The works span painting and graphic art, conceptual positions, and projects involving artificial intelligence.
The Artists
Alexander Melamid
In his series Ten Other Jews of the 20th Century, Alexander Melamid provocatively questions the standard Jewish historical icons by juxtaposing them with anti-heroes – figures marginalized or excluded from collective memory. This contrast is more than artistic provocation; it challenges viewers to reconsider the construction of guilt, identity, and memory. Melamid exposes how history is selectively told and how remembrance can both produce and deny political narratives.
Yury Kharchenko
Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Kharchenko’s visual language has undergone a radical shift – becoming more direct and urgent. His works bring Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) symbols into dialogue with quotes from Jean Améry. He also presents a provocative juxtaposition of pop culture and historical memory: superheroes and Disney characters appear in front of the Auschwitz gate – the symbol of the industrial murder of European Jews.
In this context, these iconic figures lose their dominant symbolism – they seem disempowered, almost helpless in the face of resurging violence and contemporary antisemitism. Alongside these images, the slogan “From the river to the sea” appears – a phrase that, especially after October 7, has become for many a direct threat to Jewish life.
Kharchenko’s works navigate the fragile boundary between memory and present, between trauma and political reality. His art challenges the certainties of history and identity, compelling the audience to confront the fractured state of Jewish life today.
In Bad / Good Jews, Kharchenko’s work forms the emotional and intellectual core of the exhibition – a powerful artistic intervention against oversimplification and categorization, against the division into “good” and “bad” Jews. His images are a call for resistance, remembrance, and self-determination.
Art Spiegelman
Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman, globally recognized for his graphic novel Maus, presents a complex visual language in Crossroads (Wandering Jews). He merges medieval iconography with contemporary motifs to trace both ruptures and continuities in Jewish history. Spiegelman’s works are powerful reminders that the post-Holocaust vow of “Never again” is increasingly under threat. His images serve as both places of remembrance and urgent warnings – against forgetting, against downplaying atrocities.
Michael Grobman
A key figure of the “Second Russian Avant-Garde” and a resident of Israel since the 1970s, Michael Grobman weaves mystical elements and Jewish history into his art. His works incorporate motifs from Kabbalah, a profound Jewish mystical tradition, alongside painful memories of the Shoah. Grobman’s painting evokes spiritual depth, treating trauma not only as something to be reflected upon but as part of an ongoing process of healing and identity formation. His art expresses a continuous search for meaning and belonging.
Marat Guelman
Marat Guelman views his work as an homage to his Jewish identity, to his mother, and to the conscious experience of that identity. In his creative process, he “tries on” different artistic roles – a method that has become central to his practice. For Bad / Good Jews, he appears as a kind of “Jewish Andy Warhol” – a persona born from a late but profound awareness of his Jewish roots.
Significance of the Exhibition
Bad / Good Jews is an artistic dialogue about Jewish heritage, responsibility, and the future. In a bunker built by the Nazis, Jewish art becomes an act of resistance: it gives voice to the victims, rejects the division into “good” and “bad” Jews, and asserts the right to life, remembrance, and self-determination.