Closer than they Appear: Givat Ram
Artist:
Arieli Dana
Curator:
Caine Ariel
Between 2010 and 2013, Dana Arieli visited Givat-Ram as a photographer. She was no stranger to the campus, having studied and worked there for over 20 years. The “photographic study” which ensued, displayed Givat-Ram in a different light, revealing the many concealed aspects in this supposedly accessible garden-campus. From the National Natural History Collection to the campus roof-tops she encountered a once-familiar environment made as if to commemorate the inherent tension between essence and appearance.
Inaugurated in 1958, the campus was clearly modeled after the Garden City movement, with flat ‘International Style’ buildings, engulfed by garden walkways and greenery. Situated on the edge of the “National Quarter”, built on the ruins of the Arab village Sheikh Badr, maintaining its detachment was and still is a difficult task- both physically and politically.
The photographs that are presented in Dana’s first solo exhibition attempt to visually contend with the totality of the Hebrew University on Givat-Ram, giving form to its fundamental conflicts.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, with essays by Ariel Caine, Eyal Chowers, Naomi Meiri-Dann, Miki Kratsman, Ezri Tarazi
