Dagesh Studio on the Road #SukkotEdition 2026 | “The Sky as a Roof” at the Museum for Jewish Culture Veitshöchheim
In September 2026, Dagesh-Studio on the Road will arrive at the Jewish Culture Museum Veitshöchheim with the exhibition The Sky as a Roof. Taking the Jewish festival of Sukkot as its point of departure, the exhibition brings contemporary artistic perspectives into dialogue with Jewish tradition, exploring questions of fragility, protection and community in a world marked by crisis.
With works by Michal Fuchs, Shira Orion, Regina Potomkina, Elianna Renner, Nave Knafo, Yoav Schutzer and Jan Bodenstein Curated by Johanna Weiß and Daniel Laufer
At the heart of the exhibition is the sukkah, the temporary shelter at the centre of Sukkot. Open to the elements, permeable and inherently fragile, the sukkah offers protection without promising security. Its provisional architecture embodies a form of togetherness that acknowledges vulnerability rather than seeking to overcome it.
In an age shaped by war, displacement, forced migration, climate crisis and growing social polarization, this ancient symbolism takes on renewed significance. Sukkot can be read as a lens through which to consider the precariousness of shelter, the vulnerability of private space, and the conditions under which communities are able to come together.
The exhibition takes place at a site deeply connected to the history of Jewish life in Franconia. For centuries, Jewish communities shaped not only the towns and cities of the region but also its rural landscape. The Jewish Culture Museum Veitshöchheim preserves this history through its Baroque synagogue, synagogue courtyard and former residential building. An 18th-century wall fresco in the former residence offers a particularly vivid connection to Sukkot. Its Hebrew inscription refers to the etrog and lulav, central ritual objects of the festival. The architecture of the room itself reveals an ingenious way of creating a sukkah: roof shingles could be removed and replaced with branches and twigs, transforming an interior space into a temporary ritual shelter.
The Sky as a Roof brings this historical practice into the present. Contemporary artworks, an evolving exhibition architecture and a newly conceived sukkah enter into dialogue with the museum’s permanent collection and its historical spaces. Rather than treating the sukkah solely as a religious symbol, the exhibition understands it as a spatial and conceptual model: a structure whose openness, provisionality and permeability can offer new ways of thinking about protection and belonging.
The exhibition unfolds across three interconnected levels: through artistic interventions within the permanent exhibition, through the exhibition architecture itself, and through a contemporary reinterpretation of the sukkah.
The modular display creates spaces that are distinct yet deliberately open to one another. Openings, passages and visual connections allow the individual artistic positions to enter into dialogue, while simultaneously connecting them to the museum’s historical objects and narratives. In this encounter, contemporary art does not simply complement the permanent exhibition; it shifts the way it is seen. The works draw attention to absences and gaps, question established narratives and open up new perspectives on the histories preserved within the museum.
From their diverse artistic perspectives, Michal Fuchs, Shira Orion, Regina Potomkina, Elianna Renner, Nave Knafo, Yoav Schutzer and Jan Bodenstein return to a shared question:
What does protection mean when it is not a form of isolation, but a fragile, open space for being together?