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ART//DÜSSELDORF/

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Name: Mischa Kuball

Occupation: Artist, Professor at Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne

Residence: Düsseldorf

Model of the synagogue on Kasernenstraße, Düsseldorf, 2023 (c) VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2024 Photo: David Young

AM: Mr Kuball, you always work with white light.

Mischa Kuball: The white light came to me through my interest in architecture. The light colour of "my light" is like sunlight, and it intensifies the visible. In the course of my work, I have realised that white light attracts people's attention the most. White light does not colour people emotionally, whereas they have different associations with red, blue or green light.

It was a special experience when I doubled the white projection light and the white then appeared in different intensities. The first important exhibition was at the Folkwang Museum in 1987, followed by the Mannesmann-Hochhaus in 1990 and the synagogue in Stommeln in 1994. Now, 30 years later, these projects have changed my life. Suddenly the opportunities and respect were there and led to new projects. 

"The intensity and radiance is being bundled once again."

Mischa Kuball, refraction house, Synagoge Stommeln, 1994 (c) VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2024

Photo: Hubertus Birkner

Like the other artworks, the synagogue in Stommeln is a temporary work. How can you live with that as an artist?

All works are ephemeral, which I see as a strength. What you perceive temporarily, what you let go of, what disappears again, you feel more clearly. 

With permanent works of art, a kind of harmful routine develops. If the artwork is only there for a few days or even just a few hours, people are also more gracious in their behaviour. You can be much more radical and concentrate the intensity and radiance of the artwork. People come to terms with what is no longer there - comparable to the human experience of loss. People reconstruct the meaning of the human being, who becomes more present as a result.

Your artwork "missing link_" was on location in Düsseldorf at the same time as the outbreak of the Gaza war and the associated actions against increasing anti-Semitism. Was that a coincidence or was the project already planned in advance?

Your question sounds simple, but it is not. The work will be read after 7 October in the way people look at these things now. I was in Jerusalem in March last year when the big protests against the current government took place. At that time, there were already talks with the mayor, the head of the cultural department and the Jewish community. The memorial stone was felt to be inadequate, dirty and like an electricity box. I myself found it unworthy. A test was carried out to see whether a work of art would attract more attention.

Then 7 October happened; nobody had expected that. It was stated that "Kuball's "missing link_" is a response to Hamas' desire to eradicate". We ourselves had not claimed that. We are now dealing with the reality of 7 October 2023 and a confluence of events. The desire to destroy Jewish life has come back to life. Now it is not just a matter of looking back on the 85th anniversary of the 1938 pogroms.

"The conciseness of the new work in relation to its presence at this location in public space."

What is the current status of the project? Will the artwork be called "missing link_" again?

Politicians and urban society will decide by the beginning of May at the latest whether the installation will be transformed from a temporary situation into a permanent installation. 

We as a studio are prepared for this. The new artwork will be minimalist, filigree, made of glass and even higher than the old work. The name "missing link_" remains. The idea is that people come into a field of light like a border strip. I also want cars to drive over a bump in the road. People should be touched emotionally and physically so that they cannot escape the loss of the synagogue. Otherwise, the commemoration of the synagogue would only be mental and spiritual. "missing link_" should have a pointing character. Now, for example, the hand is too big to hold the pen, and I want the pen to be in the foreground.

The project can be realised quickly because we always work personally with the decision-makers. For "missing link_", for example, I worked with the Lord Mayor, the Head of the Department for Integration and Culture, Miriam Koch, the Jewish community and the 9th grade of the Albert Einstein High School.

Mischa Kuball, missing link_, Düsseldorf, 2023 (c) VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2022 Photo: Achim Kukulies

Mischa Kuball, missing link_, von links: Bert Römgens, Miriam Koch, Mischa Kuball, Dr. Stephan Keller, Dr. Bastian Fleermann, Düsseldorf, 2023 (c) VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2024 Photo: David Young

In your project and also on the website, people tell their stories of survival.

Our website is about the people who came to Düsseldorf in 1956 - not the survivors of Düsseldorf, but those of the other pogroms. They were the ones who built up the Jewish community in Düsseldorf. We recorded their voices for our archive. Of the survivors, I particularly remember Ruth and Herbert Rubinstein. As both are over 80 years old, these voices will eventually fall silent, and it will be difficult to recount their experiences. 

"My work stands for tolerance, enlightenment and interreligious coexistence."

What is it like for you as an artist when your work and your person are politicised in this way?

At a meeting of the Jewish community, we heard the story of two survivors from a kibbutz on 7 October. The couple had been staying in a saferoom and witnessed the killings at the end of that day. Many were moved to tears during the talk, and some had to leave the room. It haunts me to this day, even in my sleep.

This is my answer to your question. Anyone who does not speak out in our society is confronted with the accusation that they have not taken a stand. I myself no longer decide whether I am political or apolitical. My work stands for tolerance, enlightenment and interfaith coexistence, whether Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or agnostic. I am committed to a coexistence that does not depend on which religious idea one follows. As naive as it sounds, it is unfortunately still political.

"For me, on the other hand, silence means giving the perpetrators space, and that is not an option for me."

A majority of people in the Gaza Strip now want Hamas to take on an important political role. But what does this mean for our collective thoughts on peaceful coexistence?

It used to be said that "the private sphere is political", and issues such as society and sexuality were projected from the private sphere into society and were given a political impetus. Today, this is no longer a big issue because we have liberalised the big social issues. 

The former chairman of Pen (the PEN Centre Germany is a German writers' association, editor's note), for example, said that he would exercise his "right to remain silent". But for me, silence means giving the perpetrators space, and that is not an option. 

In your speech on 9 November, when "missing link_" was presented, you said "The foreign enriches us“.

The French philosopher Roland Barthes said that we can only recognise what is our own through what is foreign. We cannot always appreciate the value of the things that constantly surround us because they become part of our living environment. We are often suspicious of the unfamiliar. But it is precisely in the unknown that we have the opportunity to learn from the rituals of other cultures. This is the only way we can reflect on our own culture and develop it further. This is precisely what makes people strong.

"In many books, there are small pieces of paper that float in space and are absorbed by a particular topic."

We are in an impressive library.

Over the past 30 years, I have had the privilege of working with important philosophers and thinkers such as Alexander Kluge, Jürgen Habermas, Peter Sloterdijk, Hans Belting and Horst Bredekamp. Her monographic and thematic publications can be found here, among other places. Thinking about them controversially inspires me. Many of the books have little pieces of paper that float in the room and are absorbed by a particular topic. That's how I work and then develop my concepts.

Despite the "missing link_": are you already working on the next exhibition?

There is a project agreement for the so-called Africa Conference from November 1884 to February 1885, which will take place in Berlin with the Haus Kulturen der Welt. Its chief curator Bonaventure Ndikung has written the essay "Our Neighbours" about one of my projects, and we will be developing a project in public space with him.

Mischa Kuball, (un)finished, Berlin, 2021 (c) VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2024 Photo: Stefanie Heider