GOLEM V. GOLEM

a video series, site-specific installation, and literary collaboration

2021

From left to right: Artist Julie Weitz and body double Genevieve Lerner, behind the scenes of Golem v. Golem, directed by D.S. Chun and co-directed by Julie Weitz, 2021. Photo credit @alexthebrown — From left to right: Artist Julie Weitz and body double Genevieve Lerner, behind the scenes of Golem v. Golem (Dir. D.S. Chun and Co-Dir. Julie Weitz), 2021. Photo credit Alex Brown.

Golem v. Golem is an eight-part episodic video series and site-specific installation emerging from Weitz’s multi-year project, My Golem. What began as a series of Instagram videos expanded into protest performances and collaborative works, gradually taking on a life of its own over four years. The series traces the Golem’s creation story alongside its afterlives—charting how the figure has been activated, contested, and misread across divergent audiences and contexts. Moving between autobiography and myth, Weitz navigates her role as both creator and creation, revisiting and reframing her own history while probing the limits of spiritual liberation.

Conceived during Covid, Golem v. Golem unfolded on Instagram over the week of Passover 2021, with the narrative building across daily episodes, supporting posts, stories, and a companion literary collaboration, “What We Talk About When We Talk to the Golem,” by novelist and poet Moriel Rothman-Zecher. The project was also presented at the Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture, in partnership with the Jewish Arts Collaborative.

Artist Julie Weitz , behind the scenes of Golem v. Golem, directed by D.S. Chun and co-directed by Julie Weitz, 2021. Photo credit @alexthebrown — Artist Julie Weitz , behind the scenes of Golem v. Golem (Dir. D.S. Chun and Co-Dir. Julie Weitz), 2021. Photo credit Alex Brown.

Speaking of shadows, we’re all glad that you’re

here, Golem: We’ve licked poor Sandy Koufax

so thoroughly that he grew fins and scales. We

had to make room in the attic. Sandy and Ethel

Rosenberg and Drake.

-excerpt from The Golem Sonnets by M. Pinsky-Appelbaum, Der Geylem Kolektiv

***Golem v. Golem at The Vilna Shul,*** Installation view, Boston, MA, 2021.

Asylum Arts produced Golem v. Golem, a project made possible through the generous support of CANVAS. The Jewish Book Council also produced a companion literary collaboration, *What We Talk About When We Talk to the Golem*, authored by Moriel Rothman-Zecher. The project also included digital partnerships with the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. This work is part of *Dwelling in a Time of Plagues*, a North American initiative that showcases a coast-to-coast Jewish artistic response to contemporary plagues. To explore other works in this project, visit plaguedwelling.com.