About the Exhibition
The succinct stories created by Juan Cruz remind us of the new 'gentlemen of standing and good character' who exemplified the rise of the professional classes during and after the Enlightenment. The Doctors, Lawyers, Clergyman, Scientists and 'men' of the 'arts' – poets, philosophers and painters - who gathered in clubs and coffee houses, lectured and wrote pamphlets and journals to debate the new rational sciences, proposing ways of bridging the widening spiritual and scientific divide.
Cruz presents a gallery of men of civic standing and achievements, much like one finds in the dedicated rooms of the National Portrait Gallery, devoted to members of the Kit Kat Club and other intellectual and social cliques. Cruz’s Yiddish title, however, twists this waspish membership considerably.
These written portraits are genre types, presented as short scenarios of conflicted manners and fallible conduct to illustrate the conflict between the rational and irrational self, not easily eradicated, even by reason and selfawareness.
Activate your bluetooth at each of the designated Mensch locations to receive Juan Cruz’s text portraits on your mobile. Throughout the service he tries to insist on strict adherence to the liturgy, and in his sermon he confesses himself to be a devoted fan of Shirley Bassey.
Bluetooth locations
- The Hub, Edinburgh Festival Centre, Royal Mile
- Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Nicolson Street
- King’s Theatre, Leven Street
- Queen’s Hall, Clerk Street
- Usher Hall, Lothian Road
- Royal Lyceum Theatre, Grindlay Street
- The Edinburgh Playhouse, Greenside Place
- Collective Gallery, Cockburn Street
- Talbot Rice Gallery, Old College, South Bridge
- Dean Gallery, Belford Road. Lothian Buses: No. 13; 10 min. walk from Haymarket Train Station; Free parking.
