Kumzits was a public art programme that was developed for the 30th edition of the Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow. It approached the covid-19 travel restrictions not as limitation but as enabling constraints, and explored art as communal practice in a time in which physical gathering is no longer a given. Ten artists from Berlin and Jerusalem were invited to create site-specific artworks over distance, in close collaboration with local cultural workers. In line with the main theme of the 30th edition of the festival in 2021 – fire – it was titled after the Hebrew term for campfire, kumzits קומזיץ, which originally indicated a collective meal or celebration around the fire. In the frame of this project, the term was recontextualised as a concept for communal gathering beyond geographical, social, cultural and personal limitations. Kumzits examined collaboration and participation as creative practices and an inherent component of artistic production
Kumzits was created especially for 30th Jewish Culture Festival in cooperation with HaMiffal Jerusalem, and was supported by the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation, Goethe Institut, the Municipality of Jerusalem and the City of Krakow.
Curatorial Team: Julia Kawka, Lianne Mol & Yael Sherill, in collaboration with Meydad Eliyahu and Pawel Kowalewski
Participating artists: Noa Arad Yairi, Andi Arnovitz & Cornelia Renz, Pablo Cabrera Ferralis, Dan Farberoff & David Behar Perahia, Ilona Marti, Maya Muchawsky Parnas, Yael Serlin and R. Stein Wexler
