MORPHO, ANTWERPEN
SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
from behind
the church
of Extra City Kunsthal
and the monastery
of Morpho
Two religious buildings
reconverted
to serve art
and whose thick walls
stay cold
(Poisoned gift?)
Caught in between
A garden bathes
in a gentle
end of summer
warmth
Welcoming greenery
On the side
an airy wooden structure
decorated with branches
and garlands of lights
This is the Sukkah of David Bernstein
built with the Ukrainian architect
Oleg Asoiev
Bernstein stands
behind a table
with an oval and narrow top
placed on a woman
doing a karate move
From a distance she looks like Bruce Lee
in full expansion
propelling the table line
with a kick
Utilitarian sculpture
in a futuristic-folkloric spirit
made during a residency in Vilnius
and who bears the name
Cheers to the Miss Standing Under The Table Doing Karate
David Bernstein
A jewish Texan with Lithuanian origins
introduces us orally to Sukkot
the festival of booths
celebrated in September/October
to mark the end of the harvest
but also the precariousness of living conditions
of the Jewish people during the flight from Egypt
The booths
Sukkah in Hebrew
are built in gardens
and balconies
or behind high secure gates
like in Antwerp
Tradition wants
that they be used
to share a meal
or to spend a night
after looking at the stars
the roof of the Sukkah
must indeed
always show a piece of sky
To initiate the seven-day celebration
four plant species
mentioned in the Torah
are brought together in a bouquet:
a branch of date palm, willow,
myrtle and an etrog
This Mediterranean mix
is then shaken in all directions
in a kind of rain dance
aimed at ensuring abundant harvests
Bernstein
emphasizing the diasporic nature
of this celebration
composed a bouquet
suitable for our Belgian land and made of:
a beech branch from Jette
stinging nettle from Morpho's garden
hibiscus from the artist's home
and an apple from a garden in Schaerbeek
With the same ancestral movements
Bernstein shakes his bouquet
together with a shaker
to prepare simultaneously
a divine cocktail
made from apples
and calvados
An art that can be drunk
and that flow into ourselves
like a belief that sink in us
just the right amount of sugar, acidity
and bitterness
Is this the flavors of Bernstein's
queer Judeo-futurism?
Strength of traditions
and magical rituals
that connect us to the past
to nature and to the cosmos
but also intelligence and humor
to perpetually free oneself
from the yoke of history
and invent new rites
After his cocktail party
(recipe to be provided in the appendix
of the Belgian re-edition of the Torah)
the end of the Sukkot
was celebrated
with a meal and a screening of queer films
in the sukkah
Roshan Di Puppo