EXHIBITION – When literature becomes art
“You will build the edifice of the world, raise the horns of wisdom, and produce books through printing.”
With these words addressed to his son, Jewish printer Israel Nathan celebrated the publishing company that would bring him fame and recognition. On September 14, Israel Nathan’s historic undertaking will be discussed as part of the “ExLibris — Authored Books” exhibition, curated by David Palterer, Marco Tonelli, and Norberto Medardi, which opens the evening before.
The exhibition will be open until September 28 at the Museum of Printing and consists of two sections. The first section features a “site-specific” work by Alfredo Pirri that celebrates the 1483 printing by transforming a book into a sculpture. The sculpture incorporates a broken mirror, which ties in with the Jewish concept of the “Shining Mirror” applied to the exegesis of biblical and traditional texts.
The second section features a series of books by contemporary Israeli authors, reinterpreted as works of art by Italian artists. The twenty selected books (with an update from the 2015 exhibition edition) include Judas by Amos Oz, The Immortal Bartfuss by Aharon Appelfed, Life Plays with Me by David Grossman, and Letters of Love and Absence by Zeruya Shalev.
“I believe that our only hope for the future is culture,” emphasized Palterer, an Italian-Israeli architect based in Florence. “The challenge is to bring together tradition, religion, and contemporaneity through a tangible experience.” Palterer argued that “Italy should be proud of the ongoing project to translate the Talmud into Italian.”
Palterer also explained that the Soncino edition is significant because “it was decided to use the punctuation of Tiberias, which, at the time, was the center of Jewish culture in the Land of Israel, together with Safed. All editions printed since then have confirmed that choice.” Palterersaid, “The Soncino Talmud is the educational tool that has kept Judaism alive.”
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Photo: Giosetta Fioroni’s artistic reinterpretation of the book My Michael by Amos Oz
Translated by Alessia Tivan and revised by Matilde Bortolussi, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, trainees in the newsroom of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche