April
26, 2002
Architect
and Director of Jewish Museum Berlin to Speak at Mount Holyoke
May 3
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The
Jewish Museum Berlin
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During the two years
that the Jewish Museum Berlin stood empty, devoid of exhibits,
more than 350,000 people flocked to its underground entry, wove
through its winding galleries, and peered through the slivers
of window that cut its zinc-clad exterior in horizontal, vertical,
and zigzagging gashes. Some visitors called the building a disorienting
"horror." Others named it one of the greatest architectural
achievements in the past one hundred years and called for it to
remain empty, a work of art unto itself. Whatever one thinks of
its design and how it interacts with its exhibits, the Jewish
Museum Berlin is an emotionally powerful landmark that shapes
its surroundings, and this is exactly the effect that architect
Daniel Libeskind hopes all his designs will achieve. "A building
has a responsibility to transform the context," he says.
"Not just taking from its surroundings, but also contributing.
Enlivening, transforming."
Libeskind will speak
about his current design projects and the meaning of architecture
in the twenty-first century Friday, May 3, at 4 pm in Gamble Auditorium.
Following his presentation, "Proof of Things Invisible,"
Libeskind will talk with James Young, professor of English and
Judaic studies and chair of the Department of Judaic and Near
Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. At
3 pm, preceding the lecture and conversation, Jewish Museum Berlin
director W. Michael Blumenthal will discuss the genesis of the
Jewish Museum Berlin and present-day German-Jewish relations.
These events are sponsored by the Harriet L. and Paul M. Weissman
Center for Leadership as part of the yearlong series Building
Meaning: Architecture and Public Space in the Third Millennium.
|
Architect
Daniel Libeskind
|
"In the fall,
the Weissman Center's series explored the role of architecture
as a shaper of social relations and public space. This spring,
we are focusing on the role of the architect as visionary,"
said Karen Remmler, director of the Weissman Center. "Libeskind's
multidiscipinary approach to the design process, and dedication
to transforming the education of architects, challenge us to question
the limits of our built environment. His award-winning work on
cultural institutions has redefined the relations between memory,
space, and the material world. We are pleased that Libeskind will
be joined by James Young for a conversation. Young's writing on
the literary, artistic, and memorial representations of the Holocaust
and its remembrance have helped illuminate the very grain and
texture of memory. In his pre-lecture talk, the distinguished
director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, W. Michael Blumenthal,
will provide a framework for discussing the genesis of one of
Libeskind's first major building projects. We are hoping for a
lively discussion that will span the nuts and bolts of building
a Jewish museum in the German capital of Berlin to the relation
between imagination and architectural practice in the twenty-first
century."
|
Jewish
Museum director W. Michael Blumenthal
|
In addition to his
award-winning design for the Jewish Museum Berlin, Libeskind is
well known for his extensions to London's Victoria and Albert
Museum, the Imperial War Museum North in Trafford, and the Denver
Art Museum. Born in Poland in 1946, Libeskind became an American
citizen in 1965. He studied music in New York and in Israel on
an America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship and became a
virtuoso performer before pursuing architecture. He received his
professional architectural degree at New York City's Cooper Union
for the Advancement of Science and Art and earned a postgraduate
degree in history and theory of architecture at the School of
Comparative Studies at Essex University. Currently a professor
at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, Germany, and
the Cret Chair at the University of Pennsylvania, Libeskind works,
teaches, and lectures worldwide. He has been the recipient of
numerous awards, most recently the Hiroshima Art Prize, given
to an artist whose work promotes peace, and his work has been
exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.
Born in Germany in
1926, W. Michael Blumenthal lived in Berlin until his family escaped
from Nazi Germany to Shanghai in 1939. He emigrated to the United
States in 1947 and became a citizen in 1952. Blumenthal holds
a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University
of California, Berkeley, a master's degree in public affairs from
Princeton University, and a master's degree and doctorate in economics
from Princeton. He has had a distinguished career in education
and business, having taught economics at Princeton and served
in executive positions at Crown Cork International Corporation,
Bendix Corporation, Burroughs Corporation, Unisys Corporation,
and Lazard Freres & Co. LLC. He also has a long history of
public service, having joined the U.S. State Department in 1961
as deputy assistant secretary for economic affairs. He became
an ambassador in 1963 and served for four years as deputy special
representative for trade negotiations under Presidents Kennedy
and Johnson. He was the sixty-fourth U.S. secretary of the treasury,
serving in the Carter administration. A member of several boards
of directors, Blumenthal is also a member of the Council of Foreign
Relations and author of numerous articles and the book The
Invisible Wall, Germans and Jews, A Personal Exploration (1998).
In December 1997, Blumenthal accepted an invitation from the city
of Berlin to become president and chief executive of the Jewish
Museum Berlin.
James E. Young is
author of At Memory's Edge: After-Images of the Holocaust in
Contemporary Art and Architecture (2000); The Texture of
Memory (1993), which won the National Jewish Book Award in
1994; Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust (1988); and numerous
articles about the art, literature, and politics of memory and
the Holocaust. He was the guest curator of the exhibition The
Art of Memory: Holocaust Memorials in History, which was displayed
at the Jewish Museum in New York City and at venues in Berlin
and Munich, and was the editor of the exhibit's catalogue, The
Art of Memory (1994). In 1997, Young served on the five-member
commission appointed by the Berlin Senate to choose the design
for Germany's national "Memorial to Europe's Murdered Jews,"
now under construction in Berlin. Young holds a doctorate from
the University of California and has taught at New York University,
Bryn Mawr College, the University of Washington, Harvard University,
and Princeton University. He has been at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, since 1988.
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