The Jewish Museum Berlin just opened an new exhibition titled Home and Exile which tracks the meandering paths of German Jews fleeing from the Nazi regime.

Part of the exhibition are a few neat multimedia exhibits. There’s a new piece by Art+Com which, very much in the spirit of the floating.numbers employs an interactive table to make facts tangible. In this case, up to three people can point at different countries and the table will explain their role in the process, what their immigration politics were toward Jewish refugees etc., often illustrated by private photos. Unlike the numbers, this piece uses relatively affordable off-the-shelf (Powermates) interfaces, a fact the guys seemed to feel pretty clever about.

More low-profile but also interesting was Whitevoid‘s “Happy Families”. This piece is about a book that the kids of emigrants Heinrich and Lotte Dorner compiled from 25 years of exile and which was eventually donated to the museum. Since the original is fragile, Happy Families is an exact reproduction of the original which is controlled by touch and in some parts also enhanced with the possibility of zooming etc. The funny thing which gives the installation something unreal is the fact that the real book is sitting right next to it behind a pane of glass.

Home and Exile, at the Jewish Museum Berlin through April 9th 2007. Also just opened in Berlin: Blast Theory’s Day Of The Figurines.

Some photos on Flickr.