Esther Eppstein presents the new premises of message salon, in Perla-Mode on Langstrasse in Zurich.
During the month-long renovation and furnishing period, video artist Bettina Browar ‘b_view’ captured the hustle and bustle of Perla-Mode, which is evolving into a cultural centre, on video camera. From the collected material, b-view edited her observations into the video essay ‘perla_view’. The video will be projected in the newly opened message salon exhibition space.
The second part of the opening exhibition sheds light on Esther Eppstein’s ‘back to the roots’ and her artistic and biographical connection to the new location on Langstrasse in Zurich Aussersihl, in district 4.
Ten years ago, in 1996, the first message salon was born on Ankerstrasse in Zurich-Aussersihl.
Zurich Aussersihl is also the birthplace of Paul Eppstein, Esther Eppstein’s father. Two streets away from Perla-Mode, Paul was born in 1917 in the Jewish kosher bakery Epstein on Zwinglistrasse. His parents had emigrated from Poland/Russia and, after many twists and turns, settled in Zurich-Aussersihl, the ‘Shtetl an der Sihl’, at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Rubinfeld family, who had also emigrated from Poland, had opened their textile shop Perla-Mode/Rubinfeld on Langstrasse at that time. The shop was well known throughout the city and remained in family ownership until it closed a few months ago. With the end of Perla-Mode/Rubinfeld, one of the last visible remnants of Eastern Jewish life in the Langstrasse neighbourhood has disappeared.
Zurich artist Serge Pinkus, grandson of revolutionary Jewish-Polish publisher Theo Pinkus, accompanied Paul Eppstein, the baker’s son who was first active in cycling and later became an entertainer, friend and collector in Zurich’s art scene, with a video camera in August 2001 on a tour of the season opening of the galleries in Aussersihl.
During this walk, various topics are discussed, such as childhood in the Jewish quarter on Zwinglistrasse and the transformation of the neighbourhood from a poor suburb to a red-light district and gallery quarter. Three months after these recordings were made, Paul Eppstein died in Zurich at the age of 84.
Esther Eppstein has edited the raw material provided by Serge Pinkus into an essayistic documentary VHS video, which will now be shown at the opening at Perla-Mode, supplemented with photographic material from the Epstein family album.