ON FRIENDSHIP / (COLLATERAL DAMAGE)

Since 2015 Joseph Sassoon Semah and curator Linda Bouws are closely involved in the large-multi-year project entitled: On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) in which Sassoon Semah supplements Western art-history with the missing information, the 'empty page'.

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) IV - How to Explain Hare Hunting to a Dead German Artist
[The usefulness of continuous measurement of the distance between Nostalgia and Melancholia],
'Hasenjagd' is the code word for killing Jews during WWII (2021-2023).

In 2021/2022 the 100th anniversary of the birth of the artist Joseph Beuys was celebrated in Europe, among others with a special event Beuys 2021. 100 years. Joseph Beuys (1921, Krefeld - 1986, Dusseldorf) is one of the influential post-war German artists, who became particularly famous for his performances, installations, lectures, and Fluxus concerts.
But who is Beuys truly?
Joseph Beuys mythologized his war story as a National Socialist and Germany's post-traumatic era. After WWII Beuys transformed himself from perpetrator to victim. And yet, his service in the Luftwaffe during WWII did not really effect his artistic practice. During the 100-years manifestation the controversial activities, the significance, the post-war culture, and the political ideas of Joseph Beuys have not been properly criticised. As part of the celebration, it is high time we add a critical eye on Beuys' work, as well as on his association with Germany's post-war era. Joseph Sassoon Semah takes us on a critical journey concerning Beuys. He has done extensive research on Joseph Beuys' activities, values, and ideas while analyzing in the process the deeper meaning of the (hidden) symbols used by Beuys. He responded to Beuys with old and new three-dimensional works, a series of old and new drawings, performances, texts, and meetings.
Publication On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) IV How to Explain Hare Hunting to a Dead German Artist [The usefulness of continuous measurement of the distance between Nostalgia and Melancholia] will be published in February 2023. With texts by Joseph Sassoon Semah, Hans Peter Riegel, Arie Hartog, Linda Bouws, Rick Vercauteren, Ton Nijhuis, Mati Shemoelof, Markus Netterscheidt, Albert Groot, David de Boer, Paul Groot, Ulco Mes, Bas Marteijn and Andreas Wöhle.

Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten
Final editing: Linda Bouws & Joseph Sassoon Semah
Design + layout: kunstburo geert schriever
A4, 208 pages, full colour
ISBN 9789090368399

The richly illustrated publication can now be ordered:
Stichting Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten
€ 49.95 and € 5 shipping costs
account number NL 42 INGB 0006 9281 68
stating On Friendship IV, name and address.

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) III – The Third GaLUT:
Baghdad, Jerusalem, Amsterdam (2019-2020),
the dominant subject was the significance of lost culture, exile, hospitality, and identity. At 36 very different and diverse locations in Amsterdam, Joseph Sassoon Semah shared his forgotten cultural heritage via visual art, performances, debates and lectures. For the manifestation, Sassoon Semah produced 36 architectural models based on houses, cultural institutions, synagogues and Jewish graveyards in Baghdad prior to 1948, referring to the lost rich history of the Jewish Babylonian culture.
At the same time, he built two temporary houses - named MaKOM in MaKOM - in Amsterdam (Hermitage Amsterdam), and in Jerusalem (Jerusalem Biennale). In the manifestation, specific reference was made to the cultural and religious diversity in Jewish communities, with the purpose of giving the rich Babylonian Jewish culture a place next to the Western Jews, and the memory of SHOAH. In a metaphorical sense, Part III is an ode to a lost culture, and at the same time an invitation to dialogue between the different points of view in Judaism.

Publication The richly illustrated publication Joseph Sassoon Semah
On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) III - The Third GaLUT: Baghdad, Jerusalem, Amsterdam
Stichting Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten
€ 39.95 and € 5 shipping costs
account number NL 42 INGB 0006 9281 68
stating On Friendship III, name and address.

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) II
The Guardians of the Door (2017-2018),
the focus was on Martin Luther and 500 years since the start of the Reformation, a critical artistic reflection on Luther's image as a 'superstar', including his antisemitic publication named On the Jews and Their Lies (1543), it's meaning, then and now. The critical reflection included works of art, artistic interventions, performances, lectures and a publication. The Nieuwe Kerk, Joods Historisch Museum, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Goethe-Institut Amsterdam were partners in the project. As part of this manifestation, Joseph Sassoon Semah created a work of art entitled The Doubling of the House in the premises of the Stedelijk Museum, and he gave 5 performances with friends, in which he responded to the collection of the Museum. Prior to the performances, a Stedelijk Statement evening took place and the accompanying book was presented. In one of the performances, he painted a tetragrammaton on the wall of the historic staircase in which he first made a reference to Toroni's vanished work, that is before he painted over it a black square. From the moment this black square was painted on the wall, the future discourse with 'the Guest' is no longer without obligation. The Guest becomes part of the institute. The Guest is transformed into the Host.

Publication The richly illustrated publication
On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) II - The Guardians of the Door
Stichting Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten
€ 35 and € 5 shipping costs
account number NL 42 INGB 0006 9281 68
stating On Friendship II, name and address.

In part I of On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) -2015 - our lawyer B.A. Vink called upon Beatrix Ruf (director of the Stedelijk Museum) to account for 'the empty page' (lack of Jewish context) in art history on behalf of the art world. The accompanying information provided by the museum gives less attention to the Jewish narrative. Such as the information provided about the artwork of Kazimir Malevich (The Black Square) and Barnett Newman. As a result of our project, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam adapted our information to the hall text of Newman's Cathedra, and by that The black square cannot view only through the lens of the Futuristic Manifesto and Christian tradition, but also through the Jewish layers of meaning. Publication 

The richly illustrated publication
On Friendship / (Collateral Damage)
Stichting Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten
€ 25 and € 5 shipping costs
account number NL 42 INGB 0006 9281 68
stating On Friendship I, name and address.

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) V: Between Graveyard and Museum's Sphere is in preparation for 2023/24.
Contact: Linda Bouws, lindabouws@gmail.com

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) IV
How to Explain Hare Hunting to a Dead German Artist
[The usefulness of continuous measurement of the distance between Nostalgia and Melancholia]
(September 2021 - December 2022)
A critical project concerning post-war artist Joseph Beuys
Created by Joseph Sassoon Semah, curator Linda Bouws
© Stichting Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten

In 2021/22 the 100th anniversary of the birth of artist Joseph Beuys will be celebrated in Europe, among others with the special event 'Beuys 2021. 100 years'. Twelve cities and twenty institutes in Noordrijn Westfalen in Germany will be organizing exhibitions, theatre and other activities to celebrate this anniversary. (see for more info https://beuys2021.de/en). Joseph Heinrich Beuys (1921, Krefeld- 1986, Dusseldorf) is one of the most influential German post-war artists, who became particularly famous for his performances, installations, lectures and Fluxus concerts. But who was Beuys truly? Joseph Beuys mythologized his war history as a National Socialist and Germany's problematic and post-traumatic past. After Word War ll Beuys transformed himself from perpetrator to victim. His service in the Luftwaffe did not offset his artistic practice. During this 100-years event none of these controversial aspects of Beuys' work, values and ideas are focused upon. As part of this celebration it is high time to add a more critical eye on Beuys' work and his relationship to Germany's post-war history.

ON FRIENDSHIP... / OVER VRIENDSCHAP... (31 oktober 2020 t/m 19 september 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.

ON FRIENDSHIP / (COLLATERAL DAMAGE) III - THE THIRD GALUT - BAGHDAD, JERUSALEM, AMSTERDAM (SEPTEMBER 2019 - JANUARY 2020)



In 2015 Metropool International Art Projects initiated and produced the artistic-philosophical project On Friendship/(Collateral Damage) in which the claim of the Judeo-Christian origins of European civilisation is questioned. In 2017 the follow-up On Friendship/(Collateral Damage) II: The Guardians of the Door took place at De Nieuwe Kerk, Stedelijk Museum, Joods Historisch Museum  and Goethe-Institut in Amsterdam, an artistic critical project on Luther and 500 years of Reformation. On Friendship/(Collateral Damage) III - The Third GaLUT: Baghdad, Jerusalem, Amsterdam is part of this multiannual project.

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) II - The Guardians of the Door (June 22 2017 - January 2018)



During his long-term project On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) in which he collaborates with Metropool International Art Projects / Studio Meritis MaKOM (Linda Bouws), the main question is how western art and culture are presented and why. In Part 1 (2015) Semah searches for the specific Jewish implications in Kazimir Malevich's (The Black Square) and Barnett Newman's work, and also critically researches the claim by a growing group of people that refer to the Jewish-Christian origin of European culture. Through his lawyer Bob Vink, Semah makes contact with Beatrix Ruf, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and asks her to account for the 'empty page' in art history on behalf of the art world.

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage)

23-25 October 2015

The project will deal with the topic of Western history of art and its Judeo-Christian roots; is this hypothesis tenable, defensible or does it require an adjustment? Joseph Semah and representatives of museums, art and culture discussed profoundly one of the most significant questions concerning art historical research: the search for coherence in making works of art, and what this consistency means for contemporary thought on art historical research.  Read more......

Site-specific art created to celebrate Felix Meritis 225th anniversary, 2013

Location: The Observatory of Felix Meritis, Keizersgracht 324, and in the city of Amsterdam.

Please note: only from the Observatory of Felix Meritis, Amsterdam (the area where the 4x optical telescopes were installed), blue neon lit citations are visible on remarkable buildings all over the city.

The Observatory of Felix Meritis, Keizersgracht 324, Amsterdam:

Granite - black galaxy (The carving depicts in a mirror image, the design of the Amsterdam Canal District), 4 x bronze casted tripods + 4x optical telescopes Height 170 cm. (Deel III van III)

Autobiographical Memory 2007

In de liftschacht van Felix Meritis verschijnt een 'geweven kunstwerk van neon' met de grote namen uit de geschiedenis van Felix Meritis uit het verleden tot en met heden. Het kunstwerk, een verankering van namen in spiegelbeeld in neon op de bakstenen, plaatst de geschiedenis van het gebouw tegen twee eeuwen hoofdstedelijke culturele, sociale, politieke en economische ontwikkeling.

Prominente figuren uit diverse departementen van Felix Meritis worden zo vereeuwigd.

Dit kunstwerk legt niet alleen het geheugen van het gebouw en haar bezoekers vast en van de stad Amsterdam en haar internationale positie. Het vormt ook een soort canon, een culturele, typografische atlas van Amsterdam. (Deel II van III)