Hugs

Artists: Ruti Sela
Curator: Lea Mauas (Sala-Manca)

The new exhibition by artist Ruti Sela at the Mamuta Center presents four works that deal with the body, interpersonal relationships, and technology. In the main work, a new piece called HUGS 2025, Sela recreates her first video work Hugs (1999), in which a performance of hers is filmed in which she walks the streets of Jerusalem aiming to collect hugs from strangers. The entire exhibition points to the changes that have occurred over the past 25 years, from technological changes to value and moral changes, and surveys the demographic and political shifts in Israeli society in Jerusalem over a quarter of a century. The exhibition will also feature three earlier video works: HUGS, the original video work from 1999, HUGS #2, and ‘Therms and Conditions‘ (in collaboration with Maayan Amir).

Ruti Sela (b. 1974, Jerusalem) lives and works in Tel Aviv. Her works are created at the intersection of film, performance, and video art. Sela documents and deals with different configurations of power relations, often in the context of law, politics, and sexuality.