My Mother's Mother Tongue
Lecture Performance and an installation.
Masters Thesis Praxis at Spatial Strategies, Weißensee Kunsthochschule.
Pefrormed by: Danielle Shoufra
Performance manging: Yael Peri
Artistic supervision: Lerato Shadi
Photos: Jongbin Park
An ancestral journey crosses time and space, in search of a place to settle; where historical facts and aspects from botany are entangled with memories, thoughts, and personal reflections. "My Mother’s Mother Tongue” delves into the intersection of migration, cultural evolution, and natural history. Focusing on the Tradescantia Zebrina plant, commonly known as "The Wandering Jew,” I deconstruct my ancestral heritage as a Jewish woman navigating the diaspora experience. I juxtapose the movement and migration of the Tradescantia Zebrina plant, which in some cases became invasive species, to the movement of the Jewish diaspora and to my own movement and experience as a mother in the diaspora. Through performative means of narration, and by presenting historical and botanical documents, I weave a story of migration, motherhood and culture. I create an atmosphere of wandering around different geographies and landscapes, through sounds and music that are entangled into the performance.