Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Mir Zaynen Do!

Bartana, Yael LU (2024)
Abstract
One channel video and sound installation, 11.35 min.

In communities of the diaspora, music can be a powerful tool for collectively preserving memories. Along with storytelling, traditional languages, and dancing, songs can represent a living home for stateless nations.

Commissioned by the Jewish Brazilian art space Casa do Povo, Yael Bartana's new work brings together two groups from two different diasporas: Coral Tradição, a Jewish Brazilian choir born from the now-destroyed Yiddishland (a nation whose borders were defined by the reach of the Yiddish language itself), and Ilú Obá De Min, an Afro-Brazilian street music ensemble that stems from Candomblé culture. In an exercise of weaving new possible alliances, Bartana's... (More)
One channel video and sound installation, 11.35 min.

In communities of the diaspora, music can be a powerful tool for collectively preserving memories. Along with storytelling, traditional languages, and dancing, songs can represent a living home for stateless nations.

Commissioned by the Jewish Brazilian art space Casa do Povo, Yael Bartana's new work brings together two groups from two different diasporas: Coral Tradição, a Jewish Brazilian choir born from the now-destroyed Yiddishland (a nation whose borders were defined by the reach of the Yiddish language itself), and Ilú Obá De Min, an Afro-Brazilian street music ensemble that stems from Candomblé culture. In an exercise of weaving new possible alliances, Bartana's video is an invitation to imagine the emergence of collective bodies beyond fixed identity labels.

The work was shot in the Teatro de Arte lsraelita Brasileiro (TAIB), which was built in the basement of the Casa do Povo in 1960. The TAIB was created for a future that never fully happened: the return of the Yiddish language. Nevertheless, it became the dream theater of the experimental performing arts scene in São Paulo in the 1960s and ’70s, only to fall into a crisis in which it still finds itself today. It is in the ruins of this legendary theater that Bartana imagines a time to come – between past and present, memory and pre-enactment, the sung word and collective choreographies. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
artist
LU
organization
publishing date
type
Non-textual form
publication status
published
subject
keywords
diaspora, Candomblé culture, Yiddishland, collective choreographies, memory, pre-enactment, music, choir
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1abaa710-e296-4f5a-9efc-239b072c3491
date added to LUP
2025-05-12 13:47:15
date last changed
2025-05-12 13:52:45
@misc{1abaa710-e296-4f5a-9efc-239b072c3491,
  abstract     = {{One channel video and sound installation, 11.35 min.<br/><br/>In communities of the diaspora, music can be a powerful tool for collectively preserving memories. Along with storytelling, traditional languages, and dancing, songs can represent a living home for stateless nations.<br/><br/>Commissioned by the Jewish Brazilian art space Casa do Povo, Yael Bartana's new work brings together two groups from two different diasporas: Coral Tradição, a Jewish Brazilian choir born from the now-destroyed Yiddishland (a nation whose borders were defined by the reach of the Yiddish language itself), and Ilú Obá De Min, an Afro-Brazilian street music ensemble that stems from Candomblé culture. In an exercise of weaving new possible alliances, Bartana's video is an invitation to imagine the emergence of collective bodies beyond fixed identity labels.<br/><br/>The work was shot in the Teatro de Arte lsraelita Brasileiro (TAIB), which was built in the basement of the Casa do Povo in 1960. The TAIB was created for a future that never fully happened: the return of the Yiddish language. Nevertheless, it became the dream theater of the experimental performing arts scene in São Paulo in the 1960s and ’70s, only to fall into a crisis in which it still finds itself today. It is in the ruins of this legendary theater that Bartana imagines a time to come – between past and present, memory and pre-enactment, the sung word and collective choreographies.}},
  author       = {{Bartana, Yael}},
  keywords     = {{diaspora; Candomblé culture; Yiddishland; collective choreographies; memory; pre-enactment; music; choir}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Mir Zaynen Do!}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}