The exhibition Golemet presents an artistic and conceptual framework that understands inherited trauma not as a metaphor, but as a lived, embodied reality. Drawing on contemporary research in epigenetics and trauma studies, the project approaches memory as something carried in the body—activated in moments of rupture, threat, and renewed exclusion.

Golemet unfolds as a collective articulation by Jewish women responding to the reactivation of historically conditioned fear following the events of 7 October 2023 and the subsequent rise of antisemitism across Europe and beyond. Rather than producing new narratives of victimhood, the project focuses on how inherited memory resurfaces in the present: in bodily reactions, in affect, and in the urgent need for connection, care, and mutual recognition.

At the core of the exhibition is a manifesto and a set of shared questions developed collectively as part of the artistic process. These texts function not as explanatory tools, but as performative elements—voices emerging “from the depths,” articulating what often remains unspoken in public discourse. Testimonies by Czech and Slovak Jewish women reflect experiences of growing isolation and symbolic exclusion within parts of feminist, activist, academic, and queer environments after October 2023, revealing fractures in spaces that previously claimed solidarity.

The figure of Golemet– a female reinterpretation of the Prague Golem – is conceived as an inanimate shell created with the help of artificial intelligence, into which real testimonies of Czech and Slovak Jewish women are embedded. In this way, human emotions and transgenerational trauma are brought into something non-living, functioning here as a contemporary symbol of protection, resilience, and collective intelligence shaped by inherited memory. The project draws on Jewish mysticism, practical Kabbalah, and the symbolic logic of protection contained in the Golem legend, placing Golemet in a space between artificial intelligence, epigenetic research, and prayer—between unconscious processes and conscious articulation.

The exhibition also engages with the history of visual technologies—from the camera obscura and early optical devices to today’s algorithmic image economies—asking how fear, visibility, and empathy are mediated in the age of social media. What forms of protection are possible when narratives circulate faster than understanding? What does care look like in an environment shaped by polarized optics?

Golemet does not seek to rank suffering or offer moral hierarchies. Instead, it creates a space for listening, embodiment, and ethical attention. It invites viewers to consider how inherited trauma can be transformed into collective strength, how memory can become connective rather than isolating, and how voices that are often unwelcome might still find a place to surface—together.

Curator: Světlana Malina