"The German painter Felix Nussbaum died in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. Now, 58 years later, the Argentinian artist Daniel Goldin has taken the fate of the painter as the theme for a further variation in his poetic and melancholy 'Pilgrimages'. In this series, Goldin, director of the Münster Dance Company, draws pictures of people on the run and in search of themselves. With his dance portrait of Felix Nussbaum, he has succeeded brilliantly."
Marieluise Jeitschko, Neue Westfälische Zeitung, 6 March 2002
"With fantasy and expression, Daniel Goldin and his eight dancers bring the figures in Felix Nussbaum's paintings to life.....The evening shows many pictures and facets of the painter, and the tragic but also the happy moments. Now and again, the grotesque also comes to the surface. For instance when the dancers translate the madness of flight and fear, of disorientation and imprisonment into their own body language in the form of bizarrely truncated movements full of surreal lightness. In these moments, a humour grins from the stage that is reminiscent of the plays of Georg Tabori."
Nina Wittemer, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Resonanzen, 25 February 2002
"The musical frame for 'In Öl und Nebel' is BAP's "Kristallnaach". While that music does not strictly speaking fit in with otherwise coherent mixture of music by Cage, Crumb and Honegger, Jewish traditionals and barrel organ sounds, it clearly underlines the topicality of the subject and prevents any historicism. ... 'Even if I should die, don't let my pictures die', Nussbaum once said; 'Show them people'. That is precisely what Goldin does.... Consequently, it is the grotesque, the unsettling, the gestures of despair, of horror, of loneliness, of fearful listening or of silence as can be found in Nussbaum's pictures that dominate the dance elements. ... The use of Nussbaum's image language is one of the strengths of the piece."
Marcus Termeer, taz, 3 March 2002
"The soul-stirring, passionate piece was rewarded in Münster's Main Theatre with minutes of applause. A mountain of mattresses in military colours, crowned by a red and white frontier marking, is sufficient to symbolise the life of the artist, harried and in flight. For the first few minutes, the indefiniteness of the pictures is bewildering, but the suggestive power of the dance and the selection of taped music, from BAP's "Kristallnacht" to Jewish traditionals and modern classical music, become increasingly compelling... Goldin's subtle stylisation of doom is far more unsettling and moving than any display of real Nazi trappings could ever have been: The political menace only becomes visible in the mirror of art, and is made all the more intangible as a result. ...Münster's dancers are a thrill to watch with their technical perfection and coordination of movement, while Goldin's choreography occasionally almost appears classical. Although the work only lasts some ninety minutes, one leaves the theatre with the feeling of having witnessed a mighty epic."
Manuel Jennen, Münstersche Zeitung, 25 February 2002
"With this work, Goldin has achieved something special. He approaches Nussbaum's life through his pictures and presents the painter's world like a kaleidoscope, but without falling into crude realism. No Nazi symbols are needed to call up the era of the Nazis and the atrocities of the regime. The magical, poetic pictures of this work speak for themselves and bring the political context to life in the mind of the viewer without any direct references. In Nussbaum's (autobiographical) paintings, figures can be seen in the merry, sad, grotesque, depressing, despairing and happy moments of their lives. They also come alive on the stage. ... 'Even if I should die, don't let my pictures die; show them people', was Nussbaum's request to posterity. Goldin, with his wonderful team, has fulfilled this request in dance."
Patricia Stöckemann, Tanzdrama, May/June, 2002
"Although anything other than easily digestible fare, the audience at the premiere in Münster premiere audience expressed its appreciation with minutes of applause and a standing ovation....A death's head and skeleton give a further twist to Goldin's 'quotations' from Nussbaum's paintings, setting macabre accents in a review of a Jewish fate and translating the full-blooded actionism of the 'Triumph of Death' tableau of April 1944 into movement. Goldin thinks people, fates and stage props (like the cart with the last belongings) through to the bitter end.... Goldin's piece fits seamlessly into his own self-searching as a child of Jewish emigrants, and is an artistic masterpiece. For the many allusions to Nussbaum's paintings, highest praise must also go to artistic assistant Matthias Dietrich, also responsible for the stage, and to Gaby Sogl for the costumes....Daniel Goldin, the choreographer, erects a powerful, deeply moving monument in dance to Felix Nussbaum, the painter."
Marieluise Jeitschko, Ballett-Journal/Das Tanzarchiv, April, 2002
"The ensemble of eight dancers picks up the rubble, and in doing so brings Nussbaum's work to life. The costumes (Gaby Sogl) and props cite motifs from the paintings: a barrel organ, a flower held in the mouth, unbuttoned trousers, the skeleton of a tree, a death's heads (stage: Matthias Dietrich). The dance theatre combines these elements with movements that highlight the hopelessness of Nussbaum's situation, but also the mood of exuberance of the 1930s. ... The scenes are not ordered chronologically, but span an arc from imprisonment to city life, from childhood and flight, to the bitter end. The elements of different times or pictures are jumbled together, but death is omnipresent. ...Goldin pulls all the registers of dance theatre, and creates pictures that get under the skin."
Ursula Pfennig, Westfälischer Anzeiger, 25 February 2002
"Blood-sodden mattresses pile up to form on insurmountable mountain of corpses. A crooked chimney calls the death chambers of Auschwitz to mind. Maimed dummies dangle naked from the ceiling; their clothes and bones rumble by in a rickety cart. The audience sees the stage through the eyes of Felix Nussbaum, the painter. Horror, fear, destruction - these are all constants in the life of the Osnabrück artist.... With his dance work "In Öl und Nebel", Daniel Goldin has created an impressive retrospective on the artist, which comes alive with powerful poses and heavily symbolic pictures."
Simone Thielemann, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Scala, 4 March 2002