In this multichannel video installation, Hilla Ben Ari continues her exploration of figures that have found themselves outside the Israeli cultural consensus. Her intergenerational research has evolved into an ongoing tribute to these figures by highlighting mythical, historical, social, and cultural aspects of their work. This exhibition is the third major project in a series of homages in which she holds an intergenerational and interdisciplinary dialogue between herself and these artists.

This exhibition is a contemporary homage to the papercut artist Moshe Reifer (1907–1985). The video installation is rooted in her readings of Reifer’s artistic language, particularly his Midrash Letters series and figures from the 1930s. Reifer’s intricate papercuts show the influences of Jewish mysticism. The differences in technique, materials, content, form of expression and time between the papercuts and the video installation distance them very much from each other, and yet – the more we observe the performers, the more we allow the voices to reverberate within us, the greater the connection and dialogue between them.

The exhibition was made possible by the Ticho House Fund; Israel National Lottery Council for the Arts; The Foundation for Independent Creators – Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Rabinovitch Foundation for the Arts, Asylum Arts, and Impact Collections with the assistance of Outset Contemporary Art Fund.

“Walls” – dance and poetry performance by Efrat Nehama

Wednesday 14.9 at 20:00

Dancers shed their childhood dresses and dace between the bearing walls of their lives, which threaten to delimit their minds. Using a hammer and nails they pin the dresses to the walls, and in an uncontrollable and conflicting pendulum movement, endeavor to connect and separate from the walls, from the space that surrounds them, from their bodies.

The performance explores issues of taking up space and presence, particularly of a female voice that strives for expression and change.

Credits:

By Efrat Nehama; performers: Efrat Kaduri Dror, Galya Avidar, Lilach Sagir, Tzipi Nir, Efrat Nehama; costume design: Sarit Sharara; sound design: Keren Offer; photo: Natasha Shakhnes; lyrics: Efrat Nehama 

With the support of the Independent Artists Foundation by the Ministry of Culture and Sport

Hilla Ben Ari, Israeli, born 1972, The Voice that Calls to Itself, 2021, Multi-channel video installation, loop, duration 8:27 min, Photo: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem \ Eli Posner