Ella Ponizovsky Bergelson

Nov 18

Visual Artist—March through May ’18

Website ellaponi.com | Based In Berlin, Germany

Q: What project were you working on during your time at the Peleh Residency?

A: During the residency period I was occupied with research of my topic of interest at the time — 1920’s Berlin — with focus on my great-grandfather’s work. David Bergelson was a Yiddish expressionist writer, who was born exactly 100 years before me and lived and worked in Berlin. I was developing the concept and the aesthetics of the (back then future) mural project Among Refugees Generation Y inspired by his story Among Refugees from the 1920s, that unfolds various states of a refugee/migrant writer in Berlin.

Q: Were you able to meet people here who could help move your project along?

A: During my stay I was grateful to meet scholars who were familiar with, and even experts on, my topic. I attended their lectures, shared private meetings and even participated in special readings that took place in the private space of their homes. Among them: Professor Naomi Seidman who invited me to her home for a Yiddish reading of Bergelson and introduced to me an original copy of the Yiddish art journal co-edited by Bergelson — Milgroym — printed in Berlin in the 20’s; and Sasha Senderovich, who was speaking about his new translation to English of the Yiddish novel Judgment by Bergelson at the Jewish Community Library in San Francisco.

Q: You were able not just to research, but also to begin the process of creating a new mural series as well?

A: As part of the physical practice I had the chance to create a hybrid calligraphy mural in JCC in Berkeley, which contributed to the foundation of what is to become the visual aesthetics of my first mural series in Berlin Among Refugees Generation Y.

Q: Any other reflections from your time at Prince Street?

A: Aside from the focused work, I was exposed to a variety of art from San Francisco and the Bay Area’s abundant art scene and met many fascinating colleagues such as curators and artists.

The most important impression is the Bay Area’s foggy pink and purple light, which I haven’t seen anything quite like before, that was with me every day and inspires me to this day.

Ella Ponizovsky Bergelson (born 1984, Moscow) is a multilingual visual artist who immigrated to Israel (1991), grew up in Jerusalem and since 2016 lives and works in Berlin. Her own hybrid identity drives her to inspect cultural self-definition in individuals and in communities. In her work she explores and contemplates manifestations of migration and integration processes through visualisation of language. Her artwork is site-specific and often leaning on existing poetry. She believes that connecting a specific text to a specific place is a form of art.