ARETZ: Altneuland, the Sequel?
Philosophical Cabaret
Moderation Sapir Hubermann
Panelists Nimrod Weißlöwe, Gabriel S Moses, Hadas Reshef
Speculation abounds about a possible shelved “Volume II” of Theodor Herzl’s seminal science fiction novel, “Altneuland”. Published in 1902, Altneuland served as a spiritual blueprint for a utopian vision of a Jewish state in Palestine. Recently uncovered, a new document now calls for a re-reading of Herzl’s story arc. Claimed to have been drafted in 1925 (ca) by an unknown artist, the “Aretz sketchbook” consists of 60 ink drawings and notes of a never-finished disenchanted graphic sequel to Altneuland. They say that the end is also the beginning of something new. But what if such a “continuation” makes us question the entire story?
To accurately assess the historical significance of the Aretz artifact, a panel of practitioners and experts on Jewish and Zionist art will come together.
Sat 13.4 | 6 PM
Radialsystem Studio 1
Languages: English
Duration: 90 min.
Free Admission
BIOGRAPHIES
Nimrod Weißlöwe is a US-based scholar. He holds a joint doctoral degree in art economics and geopolitical foreign relations with an emphasis on the Middle East. He is an Affiliate Professor at the California State University (Chico) and the contributor and co-author of the books “Guggenheim’s Muchtar: Eurocentricism in the Middle-Eastern Art Market” (awaiting publication in MRC Press, 2025) and “Aravi-Ma‘arvi (Westren-Arab)” (2017).
Gabriel S Moses is a Leipzig-based artist and scholar. He is a Ph.D. candidate at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in the Faculty for Art and Design (supported by the DAAD), a published writer and graphic novelist (Spunk, 2011; Subz, 2010), an award-winning animator (Enhancement, 2014), co-editor of “Kalypso: Journal for Doom and Gloom Hermeneutics”, “Working Titles: Journal for Practice Based Research”, and cofounder of ArtUp Nation, the Beuys Club, and the wellness- cult/LARP, Desperately Seeking.
Hadas Reshef is a Berlin-based scholar of culture and art with experience as an artist, curator, producer, teacher, and art journalist. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. on “modern preoccupation with Jewish art” at the Berlin Freie Universität, supported by Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk, she holds a Master’s degree in ethnology and cultural anthropology from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland (2016) and a Bachelor’s degree in visual art and education from Hamidrasha Art School, Israel (2007).
Sapir Hubermann is a Ph.D. Candidate at the International Ph.D. Program (IPP), Literature and Cultural Studies, Justus Liebig University, Gießen. Her research deals with visual archival material from the Middle East and the role they have in media, film, and other artistic productions. She also holds an M.A. in Art Theory and Curatorial Studies from Weissensee Art Academy, Berlin, and works, in parallel to her research, as an independent curator, cultural manager, and art mediator in different institutions.