Contemporary art is trying to understand what is happening to us, where we are going and what awaits us, and to highlight key points and concept marks in our everyday life, which we often leave unnoticed. You can take different attitudes to “seeking a genre,” disagree to or admire an artist’s approach to self-expression, reject or actively apply new techniques, but the point is that creators and we are attempting to find answers to our numerous questions.
The exhibit of Israel’s contemporary art, held at the Institute of Contemporary Art Problems until March 26, shows the video search of that country’s well-known and young artists. Israel has long been a leader in various fields – the world applies with pleasure its cutting-edge technologies, watches its films, listens to its music, eats its superb food, and reads its books. This project was conceived thanks to support from the Israeli Embassy in Ukraine and the Golda Meir Institute of Strategic Studies in Israel.
Each of the artists represented at the exhibit shares his or her own experience in learning the world and their own history, the accumulated pain, and a high level of national identity. Being of everybody’s concern, this is particularly topical for us, for we are now in a complicated period of self-identification.
The project involves seven contemporary artists, among whom are not only the well-known Israeli masters, but also some new names, such as Sigalit Landau, Nevet Yitzhak, Ren Slavin, Michel Platnic, Raida Adon, Tzion Abraham Hazan, and Tamar Hirschfeld.
Hirschfeld’s “Black Videos” go side by side with Yitzhak’s ironic approach, Landau’s “Phoenician Sand Dance” fascinates you, while Adon depicts reticence and frankness, dreams and reality. Platnic’s works express the philosophy of a loner who is responsible for everything.
The works were made available by Tiroche de Leon Collection and personally Serge Tiroche, a well-known Israeli collector and the exhibit’s co-organizer. He has long and successfully been looking for and discovering talents not only in his own country, but also worldwide. The Start “incubator” he has organized enables young artists not only to work fruitfully and acquaint themselves with their colleagues’ oeuvre, but also to successfully exhibit their works in the world.
In the course of this exhibition, Serge Tiroche has invited Ukrainian artists, who are in creative search, to cooperate.
