SEVEN BEGGARS
site-specific performance, film, and installation
2023–2024
The Twisted Throats, Seven Beggars, documentation of a performance in Krakow, Poland on June 28, 2023 (photo credit Konrad Obidzinski)
Seven Beggars is a site-specific performance, video, and installation reimagining an 18th-century Hasidic tale by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. Staged in the streets of Kraków and exhibited at the Galicia Jewish Museum, the project unfolded through six live performances and a theatrical presentation. Weitz embodied a different beggar from the narrative in each performance, alongside a cast of queer Ashkenazi artists, including poet Moriel Rothman-Zecher, musician Ira Khonen Temple, and art director Anna Lublina. The work invited audience participation and explored the tale’s central paradox: that each beggar’s impairment is a hidden form of blessing. The project was supported in part by Mid Atlantic Arts through USArtists International and by Asylum Arts.
The Hunchback, Seven Beggars, documentation of a performance in Krakow, Poland on June 29, 2023 (photo credit Konrad Obidzinski)
Seven Beggars, Installation view, Galicia Jewish Museum’s High Synagogue in Krakow, Poland, 2023 (photo credit Konrad Obidzinski)
The Hunchback, Seven Beggars, documentation of a performance in Krakow, Poland on June 29, 2023 (photo credit Konrad Obidzinski)
The Withered Hands, Seven Beggars, documentation of a performance in Krakow, Poland on June 28, 2023 (photo credit Konrad Obidzinski)
The Withered Hands, Seven Beggars, documentation of a performance in Krakow, Poland on June 28, 2023 (photo credit Konrad Obidzinski)
The Stammerer, Seven Beggars, documentation of a performance in Krakow, Poland on June 29, 2023 (photo credit Konrad Obidzinski)
The Hunchback, Seven Beggars, documentation of a performance in Krakow, Poland on June 29, 2023 (photo credit Konrad Obidzinski)
The Legless, Seven Beggars, documentation of a performance at the Galicia Jewish Museum, Krakow, Poland on July 2, 2023, duration 55 minutes (photo credit Ada Kopec-Pawlikowska)