Ken Aptekar: Exhibition Reviewed in The Hindu

Nachbarn (Neighbors), an exhibition by Ken Aptekar (BFA ​‘73) on view in the northern German city of Lübeck’s St Annen-Museum from February 7 — May 29, 2016, was featured in an article by Ranvir Shah for The Hindu, a leading newspaper in India. 

At one level, the show tries to create discourse and harmony and comes at a time when history confronts us with larger questions around neighbourliness. The refugee issue within Europe, the Palestine-Israel conflict, our issues in India with Sri Lanka, Pakistan and now, Nepal, and also those within our cities — from vegetarian buildings in Mumbai to caste-related ghettoes in our neighbourhoods. Questions are to be asked of ourselves. How can we be good neighbours? Do we share meals and festivals? Laugh together and watch out for each other? History has taught us time and again that the good neighbour is finally the symbol of humanity at its best.

Ranvir Shah on ​‘Nachbarn’, Ken Aptekar’s show in Lübeck | The Hindu

Photo: Ken Aptekar, Carlebach Küchentuch #4, 2015, oil/​linen mounted on wood, sandblasted glass, bolts, 100cm x 200cm, (diptych) English translation: Nearly five decades after the Nazis murdered most of the Lübeck Jews in the Bikerniecki forest in Riga, the Hanseatic City welcomes Simson Carlebach’s son Felix. He managed to escape to England in 1939.