Cultural Collaboration between Israel,  France and India 

From time to time, embassies cooperate in the field of culture. During Hanukkah 2021, Israel’s Ambassador to India, Naor Gilon, together with the cultural attaché at the Israeli Embassy, Reuma Mantzur, opened the exhibition “In Another Green,” in the gallery space of the Alliance Francaise de Delhi.

Over 100 guests from the world of art, media and the diplomatic community attended the exhibit’s opening. The curator of the exhibition was Prof. Achia Anzi, an Israeli artist and an Associate Professor of visual arts at the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities in India. The exhibit explored the dynamics of colonialism in Israel through the theme of nature and allowed a closer examination of Israeli society on its various levels.

Prof. Anzi, the exhibit’s curator, connected the works of two Israeli artists, Leor Grady and Joseph Dadon. Leor Grady is an Israeli-born visual artist whose conceptual, sculptural, threaded and video works explore themes of home and identity politics. Through various mediums, he subversively repositions everyday objects, concepts and experiences to imbue them with poetic meaning.  

Yosef Joseph Yaakov Dadoune is a French-Israeli artist working at the intersection of video, photography, performance, drawing, architecture and social action. In his work, Dadoune is interested in the tensions between East and West, religious and secular life, centralized power and periphery, and the real and imaginary.

At the opening, Naor Gilon, Israel’s Ambassador to India, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, noted the three-fold connection created by the exhibition between India, France and Israel. At the conclusion of his remarks, the ambassador kindled the Hanukkah lights.

In his speech, the French ambassador noted that the exhibit was the opening event for a month of special events held in conjunction with various countries at the Alliance Francaise de Delhi. He stated that he was delighted that the opening event was conducted in cooperation with Israel. 

As part of the events surrounding the exhibition, director Avi Nesher’s film “Turn Left at the End of the World” was screened, which was a French-Israeli co-production. The exhibition was later moved to a display in Calcutta, and the exhibition catalog was launched at India Art Fair, the most important art event in India