EXHIBITION DATES 12.02.2024-19.03.2024
CULTURAMA invites you to the OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION based on the book SUZY, THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF HOUSE NO. 4 AND THE TIME OF THE HIDDEN JEWISH STARS
Books – instructions for use.
Or art as a choice and a desire to take risks and change the environment...
Opening of an exhibition based on the children's and young adult book "Suzy, the Granddaughter from House No. 4 and the Time of the Hidden Jewish Stars"
If you are willing to take a risk, come to the exhibition for children and young people based on Birgitta Berg's book of the same name, "Suzy, the Granddaughter from House No. 4 and the Time of the Hidden Jewish Stars", at the Triangular Tower of Serdica, Sofia, on February 12 at 6:00 p.m.
Can good literature be propaganda?
An even more important question—can good children's literature be propaganda?
Of course not, but...
"When we decided to start the Suzy project almost a decade ago, the risk of getting caught in the eye of the storm seemed negligible," say the Cultural Perspectives Foundation, publishers of the book and organizers of the exhibition.
"Today, when we finally managed to present the printed book in Bulgarian, along with the accompanying exhibition, the world is embroiled in not one but two wars, one of which is directly related to the theme of our work and places it in a complex context of ideological divisions," the project initiators continue.
"Suzy, the granddaughter from the house at N4"
It is an unadulterated and truly moving look at the evil of fascism as experienced by a Jewish child and his family, told from the bombed but undestroyed and unbroken house of our collective memory.
A story that is not malicious, but revealing.
It is a story that deserves to become part of our children's world and does not deserve to fall under the fire of the ideological layers of us, their parents.
But will this be the fate of the book and the Suzy exhibition, or will it resemble the difficult fate of the heroine Suzy?
The answer to this question depends solely on us.
"We, as publishers of the book and curators of the exhibition, are willing to take the risk because we are certain that the specific story of the granddaughter from house No. 4, like all good literature, sends messages that transcend ideological divisions messages related to the important themes of post-memory, exclusion, and inequality, which are just as relevant today as they were 70 years ago. And we believe that these are issues that should be of equal concern to children, regardless of which side of history their parents choose to stand on," says Ina Kancheva, chair of the Cultural Perspectives Foundation. . "That is why we challenge you to embark, together with your children, on an exciting, visually appealing, and well-intentioned journey that will allow you to get to know Suzi's family."
The exhibition tells the true story of a Jewish girl from Berlin-Wilmerdorf who, together with her parents Steffi and Ludwig Kolm, went into hiding in October 1942 to escape persecution by the National Socialist regime. The family survived thanks to the help of a whole network of people who believed that doing good was worth the risk. The exhibition is a multi-voiced review of this story. It begins with a stumbling block for Gertrud Kon, the grandmother of the family.
In front of house number 4, there is a memorial plaque
to Gertrud Kon, Suzy's grandmother.
This and other stumbling stones were laid on Nikolausberger Platz in 2012 at the suggestion of pupils from the Cecilien Primary School in Berlin. It stands at the beginning of the story of Suzy and her family.
The story begins around 1930,
when, as today, many people of different origins, ideologies, and religions, rich and poor, lived together in Berlin, but then everything changed...
Berlin-based writer, illustrator, and teacher Birgitta Beer has brought the experience to life from the perspective of her granddaughter Suzi, using a literary technique that intrigues children's imaginations—the visual language of the graphic novel.
Her story is based on materials from Stefan Kolm, a descendant of the family and Suzi's stepbrother, who shared his memories, documents, and artifacts from the family archive with the author.
The exhibition based on the book offers an innovative approach to recounting the past through the present – a risk that makes the experiment even more exciting.
Along the way, you will encounter many entertaining little stories about rejection and acceptance, fear and courage, and optimism and innocence as an antidote to evil.
The project deals with memory and worldview and offers options for action that raise awareness for independent, responsible decision-making. One focus is on anti-Semitism and the memory of Suzi and the Holocaust. The aim is to build bridges to the present, to impart knowledge and to raise awareness of the dangers associated with anti-Semitism, but also with exclusion in general (xenophobia, otherness, bullying, etc.).
The exhibition is open from February 12 to March 19 at Triangular Tower of Serdica, Sofia, 16 Knyaginya Maria Luiza Blvd. , where the multimedia part of another exhibition related to the topic of countering anti-Semitism will also be on display, namely "THE JEWISH STREET – RECONSTRUCTION" – a project that was shown in 2023 with the support of the Directorate for Cultural Initiatives at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"JEWISH STREET – RECONSTRUCTION" is an attempt to reconstruct Jewish Street, as the leaders of Bulgarian Jewry called their community years ago. A rich cultural heritage created by the community in Bulgaria. Today, most Bulgarian cities have no Jewish residents. Their streets and neighborhoods are disappearing, and the collective memory of them can be pieced together from what has been preserved in key Bulgarian institutions – archives, museums, and libraries.
The book "Suzy, the Granddaughter from House No. 4 and the Time of the Hidden Jewish Stars" can be found in bookstores or ordered from online store at www.culturama.art.
HERE you can download specially prepared educational material related to the exhibition:
The project was implemented in cooperation with and with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the State Cultural Institute at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria, Sofia Municipality, the Museum of the History of Sofia, the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria "Shalom," the Communitas Foundation, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, TRADUKI, Marché Antique, J-point Group, and others.