An installation by the British artist Ben Jack Nash is breathing life into the abandoned synagogue in Reichshoffen, France as a means of using art as a means of bringing back memory of the Jewish history of the town.
Called “Les Résidus du Vide” (or “Leftovers from the Void”), the installation was opened Sunday, June 17, and will be open to visitors on weekends in June, July, and September.
Nash, who is based in Strasbourg, says on his web site:
The artwork takes the form of an architectural intervention. It will integrate a series of ‘sculptural interactions’ constructed specifically for this site and this project that respond tightly and in close harmony with the character and energy of the building and its space. Elements of uncertainty, deception and discretion will be important informing ideas as will the notion of physical and social transformation. Several individual elements such as the stained glass windows, candelabras and stone carvings will be interacted with in such a way that, as with the fate of the community itself, their very existence becomes open to doubt.
Designed by the architect Albert Haas, the departmental architect for the Wissembourg district, the synagogue was built in 1851 in a style with Moorish elements. During World War II it was looted by the Nazis but functioned again after the war. Services were held into the 1960s and it was closed in 1967.
Nash states:
Reichshoffen synagogue is part of our world heritage. It is one of the last testimonies of a disappeared tribe – the Jews of rural Alsace. In the future, this synagogue together with the other rural synagogues in the region, will be held up similar to how Mayan Temples are considered today.
He notes that In February 2017 “Les Résidus du Vide” “won the prize for best project at the prestigious contemporary arts award “La Dînée” in Strasbourg, France. The award is a micro-finance initiative initially selected and put forward by a number of high-profile curators and gallery directors.”
Here’s a video about the project:
Click to see information and photos of the Reichshoffen installation on Ben Jack Nash’s web site
Click to read about the history of the Reichshoffen Jewish community (in French)
The Reichshoffen project is by no means, of course, the first project to situate art installations in abandoned or otherwise disused synagogues, nor to otherwise use are as a means to recovering or evoking Jewish memory.
One striking exhibition, for example, took place January 15, 2004 in Poznan, Poland — in the once-grand synagogue that the Nazis had turned into a swimming pool during the Shoah, and which at that time was still being used as such — it was only closed down in 2011, and the ultimate fate of the building is still not clear.
In an installation called “Atlantis,” the Polish artist Janusz Marciniak floated 600 memorial candles on the pool’s water, in the shape of a Star of David. In addition, 100 memorial candles lit the entrance leading to the interior, 200 torches with blue light were distributed to an audience of about 600 people who assembled for an accompanying concert by the Poznan University Choir called “Peace Meditation”.
The event took place during the annual “Days of Judaism” initiative sponsored by the Roman Catholic church in Poland.
Catholic officials and Warsaw Rabbi Michael Schudrich (now Poland’s chief rabbi) gave speeches, followed by the concert which included Hatikvah, the Yiddish song “Papirossen,” the Eric Clapton song “Tears in Heaven” and other pieces reflecting hopeful themes.
At the end of the ceremony, Poznan’s small Jewish community placed a commemorative plaque on the synagogue wall.
Marciniak said at the time that he sought to convey deeply symbolic meaning by creating the image of the Star with Yarzeit candles and setting it adrift in a building whose history reflects the tragedy of the Shoah.