Ausstellung: »Gemalte Gebete«. Traditionelle Wandmalereien in Synagogen der ukrainischen Bukowina

In the organizer's words:

The exhibition presents wall paintings from selected synagogues in the Ukrainian part of Bukovina. It is based on Eugeny Kotlyar's many years of art-historical research and on new photographic and digital 3D documentation. These reveal both the diversity and artistic significance of these paintings as well as the threat to this important cultural heritage of Bukovina. The synagogues are presented against the backdrop of the region's Jewish history and culture.

The exhibition has a multimedia character: the photographs are supplemented by historical images, reconstruction drawings and explanatory texts. These explain, among other things, the symbolism of the synagogue murals and introduce important personalities of Jewish culture in Bukovina. A special highlight are the 3D images of the synagogue in Novoselitsa, which were created in cooperation with the Institute of Architecture at Mainz University of Applied Sciences and the Ukrainian company Skeiron. In addition, photographs documenting the artistic appropriation of the murals by students from the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Art will also be on display.

The exhibition provides an insight into the Eastern European tradition of synagogue wall painting and its regional characteristics. An analysis of the iconography, semantics and artistic design gives visitors access to the deep spiritual content and social value of this cultural heritage of Eastern Europe, which was largely destroyed by the Holocaust and the authoritarian post-war regimes and is once again threatened by Russia's current war of aggression against Ukraine.

The exhibition was curated by Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Lipińska (Institute of Art History, University of Cologne) in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Matthias Lehmann (Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies, University of Cologne) and sponsored by the Institute of Art History and the Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Cologne, the Institute of Art History at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Network for the Protection of Cultural Property in Ukraine.

The prerequisites and content were developed by the Director of the Museum of the History and Culture of the Bukovinian Jews in Chernivtsi, Mykola Kushnir, by Prof. Eugeny Kotlyar (Chair of Monumental Painting at the State Academy of Design and Art in Kharkiv) in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Stephan Hoppe (Institute of Art History at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Dr. Jan Lutteroth (Institute of Architecture at Mainz University of Applied Sciences and Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe, Marburg) and Dr. Andreas Pfützner (Martin Buber Institute for Jewish Studies, University of Cologne).

The exhibition is being presented in Düsseldorf in cooperation with the Gerhart Hauptmann House Foundation and the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Düsseldorf.