אבא, Tata, Papa – A Tribute

אבא, Tata, Papa – A Tribute – a project by Anat Manor.
Exhibition at Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv
1 July – 7 September 2015

Between 1 July and 7 September 2015, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv presents the exhibition “אבא, Tata, Papa – A Tribute”, showing artworks by Anat Manor. The project comprises paintings, drawings as well as assemblage works dedicated by the Anat Manor to her late father, who emigrated to Israel aged 17, in 1948. Her works are speaking …

http://www.icr.ro/anat_manor_en

Statement by Anat Manor

My Romanian family name is ‘Menashko’ / Mansac. As a child in my home country Israel these outlandish sounding syllables embarrassed me. I remember clearly how children laughed at my name and how teachers pronounced it wrongly. At the age of sixteen I went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to change my name officially. The clerks were shocked and told me either to come back with my parents or to wait until I had turned eighteen. I preferred to wait. Back then I suffered from inferiority complex and turned red in the face the moment someone asked where my parents came from.

It was only in Germany that these ambivalent feelings of mine were to be dispelled. My first German autumn I spent in Rendsburg on a scholarship. This dark period of the year I found cold and depressing. One day in November I was told that there would be a Balkans’ music and dance evening. On the spur of the moment I decided to go there and immediately felt drawn to the music. I bought two audio cassettes: one for my father and one for myself. From this day on, I took pleasure in being Israeli and Romanian.
My father Yeshayahu, who went by the name of Saica, was born in the Romanian town of Tecuci. In May 1948 at the age of seventeen he immigrated to Israel all by himself.

Saica, a dental technician, was unable to accumulate any substantial wealth as he felt compassion for his patients and at times also abstained from his honorary. “My patients are poor”, he explained to me, to which I replied:” But you are no welfare agency, papa!” Saica always made himself available to his patients, be it night or day, on weekends or on holidays – and for a low honorary. It was hard to convince my father that he should ask for an honorary in accordance with his high quality work performance. His ‘big’ money he wanted to win in the lottery – naively enough he really believed he would. I experienced my father as kind, sensitive, modest, but also full of humor, funny, and generous. In his way he was delicate and shy and stood out for his philosophical flashes of insight and his worldly-wise sayings. Occasionally he behaved impetuous. He loved life although life had left him with heavy scars.

The point of departure for this exhibition is personal: It is dedicated to my father. At the same time the exhibition renders homage to simplicity, humility, and humaneness.