Israeli pop-up art gallery lights up Stockolm’s winter

A pop-up gallery featuring video art projected on the windows of a greenhouse was organized by the Embassy of Israel in Sweden at the end of December to brighten up Stockolm’s dark winter.

“There couldn׳t be a better time to launch such a project rather than on the longest nights of the year and also during the light holidays of Hanukkah and Christmas,” read a statement presenting the initiative. “This year we launch the first episode of this platform that will hopefully evolve and allow more creative collaborations with both Swedish and Israeli partners in the future.”

The exhibition, titled “Inside-Out,” ran for a week and could be seen from the public space freely.

It presented works by four Israeli women artists, focusing on the concept of “home” as the most private space. In their artwork, Lila Chitayat, Alit Kreiz, Tal Kronkop and Sharon Balaban examined different points of view alternating between the private and the public, the mundane and the spectacular. Although all the works had been presented before in galleries and art centres in Israel, they were adapted for the specific location and format of the greenhouse windows.

In the work “Window,” Chitayat and Kreiz explore the backyard of the ‘white city’ neighbourhoods of Tel Aviv, the space where all the windows of a block of residential buildings meet, placing unknown neighbours in very close proximity.

“Frida” by Kronkop shows the artist's grandmother through a gentle choreography as she opens the typical Israeli shutters slowly letting the light and the outside world in.

Working with everyday simple objects, Balaban creates art featuring baby soap in a toxic turquoise color that slowly finds it way into a woman׳s hands. Colored shampoo is spilled out slowly from its container making perfect round shapes of red puddles.