Julie Weitz: GOLEM: A Call to Action

The Contemporary Jewish Museum (The CJM) is proud to present GOLEM: A Call to Action, a digital exhibition in three parts by Los Angeles–based artist Julie Weitz. The exhibition includes three video artworks by Weitz: Golem v. Golem, My Golem as a Wildland Firefighter, and Prayer for Burnt Forests, which will debut online and in alignment with three holidays in spring 2021. These artworks evolve from Weitz’s ongoing My Golem project—a performance series begun in 2017 in response to the protests and violence that took place in Charlottesville, VA, focusing on the artist’s embodiment of a folkloric Jewish humanoid. 

Golem v. Golem, an eight-episode social media engagement produced by Asylum Arts for the program Dwelling in a Time of Plagues supported by CANVAS, will premiere during the week of Passover (March 28–April 4, 2021) on The CJM’s Instagram account. My Golem as a Wildland Firefighter will open on thecjm.org on April 22, Earth Day, and will be followed by the June 21, summer solstice, premiere of Prayer for Burnt Forests. Both My Golem as a Wildland Firefighter and A Prayer for Burnt Forests will also open in person at The CJM in a newly dedicated black box gallery that will be free to the public after The Museum is able to reopen.

The eight video episodes of Golem v. Golem present an unfolding narrative inspired by the Passover story’s struggle between tyranny and freedom. Through the series, Weitz reexamines the multi-year My Golem project, exploring golem’s creation story, her activism, and how the character has been received and (mis)interpreted by different audiences in various contexts.

Over the past four years, My Golem has evolved from Instagram videos to performances at protests to creative collaborations—in the process, taking on a life of her own. Weitz’s journey through her previous work as both creator and creation in Golem v. Golem requires a retelling and reframing of her past, and ultimately leads her to question her connection to God. The project’s eight videos weave the themes of Passover throughout this dialogue, and explore the possibility of both psychological and spiritual liberation within all of us.

The two multimedia artworks, My Golem as a Wildland Firefighter and Prayer for Burnt Forests bring together photography, film, documentary content, and educational programming to confront the ecological disaster of the rampant wildfires in California. ​My Golem as a Wildland Firefighter is a selection of brief “public service announcements” promoting healthy fire ecology, and instructional videos for wildland firefighter training, in which Weitz’s golem trains in the Tahoe National Forest, and discovers the generative nature of fire. As a result, she becomes an advocate for controlled burns, a method long used by California’s Indigenous communities, and seeks to educate the public about their efficacy managing megafires. Prayer for Burnt Forests is a newly commissioned video that ritualizes the golem’s training and invites viewers to perform a prayer out in nature.

Created in collaboration with filmmaker D.S. Chun, cinematographer Mustafa Rony Zeno, costume designer Jill Spector, choreographer Scott McPheeters, musician Pam Shaffer, and musician and Rabbi Zach Fredman, the exhibition conjures a contemporary reimagining of the golem figure to explore the potential of progressive wildfire policy.

Golem v. Golem by Julie Weitz is produced by Asylum Arts, made possible with the generous support of CANVAS. The project is presented at the Vilna Shul, Boston's Center for Jewish Culture in partnership with the Jewish Arts Collaborative. A companion literary collaboration, "What We Talk About When We Talk to the Golem," by Moriel Rothman-Zecher, is produced by Jewish Book Council. Additional digital partners include The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. The work is part of a North American project—Dwelling in a Time of Plagues—a coast-to-coast Jewish artistic response to contemporary plagues. To see the other works on display, visit plaguedwelling.com.

About Julie Weitz
Julie Weitz ​is a Los Angeles–based artist working in video, performance, and installation. Weitz has been featured in ​Artforum, Art in America, The L.A. Times, The New York Times, Bomb Magazine, L.A. Confidential, Photograph Magazine, Hyperallergic​ and on ​KCRW​. She is a 2020–2021 Cultural Trailblazer of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and a Helix Fellow at Yiddishkayt. She is ​a 2020 recipient of the Fulcrum Arts Emerge Program and 2019 nominee for the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Award. Weitz has received grants from the California Center for Cultural Innovation, Asylum Arts, American Jewish University, the Banff Centre and the Memorial Foundation of Jewish Culture. She currently teaches in Los Angeles and is a contributing writer to ​Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles. ​ Weitz also founded the Instagram account @Jews4BlackLives, which serves as an educational hub for the Jewish activist community in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.

About the My Golem Project
My Golem​ is a multifaceted art initiative, incorporating live performance, multichannel video installations, art film, episodic social media content, and collaborative educational programming. The project centers on Julie Weitz’s portrayal and embodiment of a futuristic, folkloric humanoid—analogously named My Golem—and has been developed in partnership with curators, galleries, and critics, as well as rabbis, Jewish scholars, and progressive religious congregations from across the United States. Throughout the My Golem project, Weitz revitalizes the golem mythology as an empowerment fantasy; in this instance, the goal is to frame a moral imperative for action around the issues of social justice, climate change, and progressive wildfire management that is uniquely grounded in the Jewish tradition. Though ​My Golem ​has evolved through a series of distinct commissioned works, what has remained consistent is the confrontation of contemporary cultural issues through the fantastical lens of a traditional Jewish mythological figure.

For more information about The CJM, including updates about The Museum’s temporary closure due to COVID-19 and the reopening plans, please visit The Museum’s website at thecjm.org.

Media Contacts
Abby Margulies
Public Relations
T 614.827.5810, abby@abbymargulies.com  

Taylor Shoolery
Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
tshoolery@thecjm.org