Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co.
Mixed-media installation, De Appel, Amsterdam, 2006.

A Jewish bank by the name of Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co. had been trading at 6-8 Nieuwe Spiegelstraat, in Amsterdam, since 1859 - a building today occupied by the De Appel center for contemporary art. During WWII and the German occupation of the Netherlands, the Nazis deliberately used the name of the well-established Jewish bank, when they set up a counterfeit branch in the Sarphatistraat, so they could make people believe that their possessions were safe in the vaults of this alleged Jewish banking house. In 1941 and 1942, all Dutch Jewish citizens were forced to hand over their securities, cash, bank holdings, art objects, precious metals and jewels to Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co. Sarphatistraat. Apart from the name, the two banks had (almost) nothing in common, and were administered quite separately.

The project intends to unfold some of the layers of that haunted building, by means of both documentation and speculation.

The installation has been created with generous loans from Nationaal Archief (The Hague),  Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (Amsterdam), and research support from Dr. Gerard Aalders, Dr. Erik Sommers, and Joeri Boom. Blog entries by Defne Ayas.

Mercury in Retrograde, De Appel, Amsterdam, 2006 (commissioned and curated by De Appel CTP 2005/06: Defne Ayas, Tessa Giblin, Laura Schleussner, Angela Serino, Stefan Rusu, Diana Wiegersma)