Bad / Good Jews – Exhibition on Jewish Identity in 21st Century | Berlin, November 13–27, 2025
November 13–27, 2025
Opening: November 13, 7 PM
Venue: Bunker West, Hohenzollerndamm 120, 14199 Berlin
Opening program:
7:00 PM — Welcome speech by Volker Beck, President of the German-Israeli Society
7:30 PM — Speech by Sergey Lagodinsky, Member of the European Parliament
8:20 PM — Discussion between Marat Guelman and Yury Kharchenko
About the Exhibition
The exhibition Bad / Good Jews brings together five renowned Jewish artists — Alexander Melamid, Yury Kharchenko, Art Spiegelman, Marat Guelman, and Michael Grobman — under the curatorship of Aljoscha Samjatin and Yury Kharchenko.
At its core, the exhibition explores what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century. The Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, marked a deep turning point — awakening memories of the Shoah and reminding the world of the ongoing fragility of Jewish life.
Today, Jews are caught between competing narratives: right-wing antisemitism denying the Holocaust and left-wing antisemitism justifying terror and vilifying Israel. In Europe’s cultural discourse, this results in a dangerous division between so-called “good” and “bad” Jews.
Bad / Good Jews rejects these labels. The exhibition examines how art can resist such binaries — how it transforms trauma, faith, digital technology, and politics into acts of remembrance and self-definition. The artworks span painting, conceptual installations, and projects involving artificial intelligence.
Featured Artists
Alexander Melamid — questions Jewish identity and historical memory in his provocative series Ten Other Jews of the 20th Century, challenging how history chooses its heroes and anti-heroes.
Yury Kharchenko — reimagines symbols of the Holocaust and pop culture after October 7. His works bring together IDF insignia, quotes from Jean Améry, and Disney characters placed in front of Auschwitz — a powerful confrontation between memory, trauma, and the present.
Art Spiegelman — the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of Maus explores Jewish identity through layered visual metaphors in Crossroads (Wandering Jews), where medieval iconography meets modern anxiety.
Michael Grobman — a key voice of the “Second Russian Avant-Garde,” integrates Kabbalistic symbolism and mystical reflections on the Shoah into his deeply spiritual paintings.
Marat Guelman — explores his Jewish heritage and personal identity through the persona of a “Jewish Andy Warhol,” blending pop aesthetics with historical reflection.
Significance
Staged in a former Nazi bunker, Bad / Good Jews transforms a space of oppression into one of resistance.
It is an artistic and moral statement — affirming the right to life, memory, and self-determination, while rejecting the simplistic division into “good” and “bad” Jews.
Visit Information
The exhibition is open by appointment only after the opening.
Please contact: badgoodjews@gmail.com
