The Picture Chamber of Bruno Schulz – The last work of a genius

After the German army marched into Galicia, the Jewish-Polish writer and painter Bruno Schulz was forced to move to the ghetto of Drohobych. The SS Chief Squad Leader Felix Landau ordered Schulz to entertain his children by painting frescos in the villa he had previously confiscated for himself. One year later, the Gestapo murdered Bruno Schulz on the street in broad daylight. In the postwar years the frescoes were painted over several times and were believed to be lost until the director Benjamin Geissler and his film crew discovered them while shooting in Drohobych, Ukraine in 2001. Since then, others have plundered pieces of the frescos, destroying parts of the ensemble.
Benjamin Geissler hoped to salvage an important piece of Jewish culture by virtually recreating the complete composition in a walk-through picture cabinet. He projected photos on the inside walls of a room built to scale and document the different phases of the project, e.g. the discovery of the frescos, the removal of various fragments and the reconstruction of the ensemble. As part of Poland’s “Bruno Schulz Commemorative Year 2012”, the picture cabinet was presented as a mobile installation to international audiences in a number of countries including Poland, Ukraine and the United States.

Artistic director: Benjamin Geissler

Venues and schedule:
Municipal museums of Zittau and venues in Hamburg, Freiburg, Luxembourg, Berlin