Haim Omer ist – nicht nur in Deutschland – mittlerweile ein über die systemische Szene hinaus bekannter Mann. Sein Sohn Noam, 28 Jahre alt, beginnt gerade, sich einen Namen als Künstler zu machen. Vater und Sohn sind dabei auf eine besondere Art und Weise miteinander verbunden, über die die Internet-Seite von Noam Omer eindrücklich und berührend Auskunft gibt. Dessen künstlerische Begabung erweist sich als eine unerwartete und faszinierende Rettung vor dem Hintergrund einer Lebensgeschichte, die – geprägt von einer massiven Lernbehinderung und Schwierigkeiten, sich in sozialen Kontexten gut zu orientieren – als Geschichte des Scheiterns gelesen werden könnte. Die Kraft seiner Bilder, die Eindringlichkeit und Präsenz seiner großformatigen Darstellungen, die sich im Internet nur erahnen lassen, sprechen eine andere Sprache. Das Reden„über“ die Bilder, die Kommunikation mit dem Kunstbetrieb freilich ist das, was Haim Omer für seinen Sohn übernommen hat und das er als seine„Sancho Pansa-Rolle“ bezeichnet, gleichwohl aber auch als seine„zweite Karriere“ als„storyteller of Noam’s art“, die mittlerweile einen großen und bedeutenden Teil in seinem Leben einnimmt. In seinen Texten auf der website von Noam berichtet Haim Omer von dieser besonderen Partnerschaft:„These developments took place in spite of Noam’s deep difficulties in forging personal or professional connections. In this respect, Noam’s difficulties create an almost unpassable barrier, for his cognitive disabilities are particularly marked in the social field. Whereas other young artists may organize themselves in groups (for instance, jointly running a gallery, or initiating a group event), know how to join communal projects, and are able to present themselves in a persuasive manner, for Noam these options are all but closed. This liability, and the understanding that Noam has no alternative to his career as an artist, led to the creation of our father-son partnership, where I am responsible for all contacts with the art world. Since Noam is the spiritual mover in our partnership, I see us as a Don Quixote-Sancho Panza duo. Like the original Sancho, my role gradually merged with that of Don Quixote’s. In addition to the correspondence with people in the art world, I started to write texts for Noam’s catalogues. The texts would originate in conversations with Noam, or with Noam and the curator of an exhibition (e.g., with Yaniv Shapira who was the curator of two of his exhibitions). Noam participates in all the meetings I arrange with art people and pretty quickly he starts speaking in his peculiar manner, which gives rise surprise and sometimes to some embarassment. The reason is that in the current art discourse, the verbal and conceptual aspects are part and parcel of the work’s presentation. Noam does not express himself in such ways: he talks about his works much more concretely, like a craftsman about his materials. He talks about brushes, ways of diluting the color, texture, stains, and dirt. He is a sort of dinosaur in the way he expresses himself: the concept, the “aboutness”, the hidden meanings are foreign to his mind. The titles of his exhibitions provide no explanatory, philosophical or psychological meanings, but are direct and unsophisticated: “Monkey n’ flower”, “Compassion”, “Sermon to the Fishes”. My partnership with Noam is one of my major life activities, I might even say, a second career, stocked with emotional highs and lows. The rejection of an article or book that I wrote never caused me such pain as a gallerist’s or curator’s refusal to meet with us. I am, of course, the recipient of the refusals, but Noam sometimes gets some of the fallout. Fortunately, he is slowly learning to react to these situations not only by becoming depressed, but also by adding some hours of work to his weekly schedule and by increasing his self-demands. Sometimes he feels strengthened by the confrontation“
Gegenwärtig arbeiten beide an einem Projekt in Deutschland (zu sehen ab dem 27.3.2011 in Kolvenburg, Billerbeck und im Stadtmuseum Coesfeld), das die Auseinandersetzung mit den Erfahrungen der Familien von Haim Omer und seines Freundes Arist von Schlippe in der Zeit des zweiten Weltkrieges zum Inhalt hat.
Zur website von Noam Omer…