Performed in the Kunstmuseum, Den Haag (NL), on the occasion of Joseph Sassoon Semah’s solo show “ON FRIENDSHIP / (COLLATERAL DAMAGE) III THE THIRD GaLUT: BAGHDAD, JERUSALEM, AMSTERDAM” (31 October 2020 – 29 August 2021).

Exile, hospitality and friendship are key themes in the work of Joseph Sassoon Semah (b. 1948, Baghdad). In 1950 he and his parents were forced to leave Iraq for Israel and Joseph eventually arrived in Amsterdam in 1981, via London, Berlin and Paris. ‘On Friendship…’ will for the first time bring together 36 architectural models of houses, a synagogue, schools and cultural buildings made by Sassoon Semah that refer to the liberal Jewish culture of his Babylonian ancestors – a culture which, he says, barely exists except in memory now.

Camera, editing and photography: Bob Schoo.