Dandira, sound work, written by Dan Allon (text recorded in Portuguese, translated by Mariana Zanetti), 2019:
"Damn Praça da República. Damn police. Damn Barão. Damn Augusta. How dare they, to think they could go with their fancy shiny car, and pick her like a piece of meat? To take her into the shadows, and beat her? And the police knew all about her, and did nothing about it?! Poor Dandira. And her damn mother? She says she hugged her, but still calls her “the best son.” She said Dandira was in a good place in life, but “look what happened to him! They killed him like they killed Jesus Christ!”… Look what happened, it’s your fault! They dragged her, beat with a stick, beat her with a rock. Everything. Animals. And everybody around dared to see the lynch, and do nothing. They just took a peak from the closed windows. She died asking for water. I don’t know what I am going to do without you, Dandira. I don’t know what I am going to do without you."
Actress: Telma Vieira
Recording and editing: AP Leinonen
Installation view from Fresh Paint, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2019
Photos from Museu Guido Viaro, Curitiba, Brazil
Ghost & Golem chapter II - Mr/Mrs K - solo performance in various length, installation and a sound work (loop), 2018-2019
Exhibited at:
Sabra Festival, Brazil x Israel: Museu Guido Viaro, Curitiba, Brazil. Curator: Marina Ramos
The Group exhibition Fronteiras Indigestas, Contemporão Project Space, São Paulo, Brazil. Curator: Yiftah Peled.
Photos: Guilherme Negrão.
Fresh Paint, Expo Tel Aviv, Israel. Curator: Raz Shapira Fainburg.
Photos: Dor Kedmi and Lilach Raz.
The group exhibition Displacement at Musrara Mix Festival, Jerusalem, Israel. Curator: Sharon Horodi.
The figure of the golem comes from ancient Jewish sources—first appearing as the unformed body of Adam, made from dust. In Kabbalah, the golem is a creature shaped from clay and brought to life through mystical rituals. It represents one of the most powerful human desires: to create life from nothing. Dan Allon draws on this symbolism in his ongoing performance series Ghost and Golem. Here, “ghost” stands for memory and absence, while “golem” carries the promise of resurrection and transformation.
For the Sabra Festival at Museu Guido Viaro, Allon presents a new chapter in this series. In earlier performances, he played an artist-archivist preserving family stories through drawings, many of which blurred the line between truth and fiction. These stories focused on his grandparents’ lives in Europe and their migration journeys.
In this new work, Allon continues his research in Brazil, tracing the lives of two of his mother’s uncles who fled the Holocaust and arrived in São Paulo. Combining historical documents with family memories, he reimagines one of them as a fictional character—Mr./Mrs. K.—a queer artist living in 1960s–70s São Paulo. Too ashamed to share their true self with family in Israel, this character sends home drawings that reflect a carefully constructed version of their life.
By mixing fact and imagination, Allon brings this figure to life—his own modern-day golem. Through performance and drawing, he reshapes personal and collective memory, turning archival research into an act of poetic creation.
Special thanks to:
Eduardo Cardoso Amato, Sabra Festival, Museu Guido Viaro, Tal Alperstein, Tal Rosen, Elaine Peled, Maira Vaz Valente
Thanks to: Mariana Zanetti
The Jewish Museum of São Paulo (Museu Judaico) and the team of the Centro de Memória do Museu Judaico (Pinheiros)
The archive of Mr/Mrs K (scroll with the arrows to see all the images)
Ghost and Golem Chapter II
n this installation, Dan Allon reimagines the idea of biography by creating a fictional archive drawn from family stories—some true, some invented. The exhibition presents three parallel narratives: his grandmother Mazal’s love for the Spanish dictator Franco, his grandfather Max’s escape from the Nazis with help from German athlete Ilse Thouret, and the journey of a Dybbuk box from the Holocaust to Australia.
The space is structured like an archive, where visitors are invited to explore the materials—under the watchful eye of a guard played by Allon himself. Rather than focus on historical accuracy, the work examines how personal and collective myths are passed down and preserved.
Alexnder Bronner
Hermann Schein
Ariel Shilo
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Ghost & Golem chapter I - solo exhibition, B#S Gallery, Treviso, Italy, 2018
Curators: Revital Michali, Chiara Isadora Artico
In this expanded version of Chapter I of Ghost & Golem, Dan Allon deepens the performative aspect of the work. While the Berlin edition featured a one-night performance with Allon playing all roles simultaneously, the Italian version unfolded over three days—allowing each character to take center stage for a full day.
The first character, Ariel Shilo, a hipster-artist figure, created a layered wall drawing that combined a sunset, a poster announcing Franco’s death, and a struggling Ilse Thouret in the mud. On the second day, Hermann Schein, a German-born Israeli archivist, guided visitors through the artworks—offering conflicting interpretations. The final day featured Alexander Bronner, an overbearing archive guard, who disrupted visitors’ attempts to view the works, creating tension and confusion.
Through humor, irony, and contradiction, Allon invites viewers into a fragmented archive, where performance blurs boundaries between fact and fiction, authority and absurdity.
Files:
Ariel Shilo's bio - press here
Hermann Scehin's story about Bianca Gallenter - press here
Hermann Schein's bio - press here
Herman Schein's contract -press here
Alexander Bronner's bio - press here
:
Thanks to: Gallery photographer (David), Kurnia Rahmawati,
Photos: Mattia Carrer, Kurnia Rahmawati, Eva Folegotto
Special thanks: Mariana Zanetti
Ghost & Golem chapter I - olo exhibition, Hilbert Raum Gallery, Berlin
Curator: Revital Michali
The guard-archivist follows a strict daily routine. Each morning, he hangs his jacket on the wall and inspects the exhibition, ensuring everything is in place. He carefully adjusts a world map and pauses by the Dybbuk box—a mysterious object he knows well, yet continues to contemplate. The stories behind the items are familiar to him, but sometimes new narratives surface as he moves through the space.
These stories are personal, blending the lives of others with his own memories and questions. The line between past and present, fact and fiction, is often unclear.
When visitors arrive—especially those who move restlessly and ask many questions—he remains composed, responding with calm precision and occasional reminders to treat the archive with care. Phones are not allowed. Though reserved, he observes each guest closely, quietly offering a glimpse into a deeper truth. The full weight of the archive often reveals itself only after the visitor has left.
Thanks:
Sound Development City team, with special thanks to Martin Heller, Duscha Kistler and Andalus, and Sound Development team, for their great contribution to the birth of the project.
Special thanks: Daniel Wiesenfeld, Mariana Zanetti, Duscha Kistler and the curatorial crew of SDC, Laurence Marien and the crew of Het Entrepot
Photos: Adi Levy
Assistant: Caroline Chaves
Sound Developement City - Ghost & Golem - exposition (forward), 2016
In 2016, Allon participated in the artist residency Sound Developement City, based in Switzerland. The project is an expedition, traveling annually between 2 cities. Allon's residency was between Madrid and Casablanca, and the early stages of Ghost & Golem was developed there, at the national libarary of Spain, the archive of Fransisco Franco, and the neighborhood his father was brought up in Morocco, as well as local archives, and the Jewish Museum.
Interview of Allon with project corator - Duscha Kistler
Interview of Allon with curator Hagit Peleg Rotem (Hebrew)
Photos: Zakaria Ait Wakrim
Projects directors: Martin Heller, Duscha Kistler
Thanks to: Andalus, Imane Barakat, Sofiane Benkhassala, Anna Katharina Tahler