The song of the corals: A summer exhibition in Israel

To be in Eilat but without being there: "The Song of the Corals" is an exhibition that combines science and art. The exhibition presents Guetta's work "Parallel Universe", which was created especially for this exhibition, and seeks to enhance the visitors' experience, alongside scientific collection items, magnificent photographs and information collected over decades of scientific research.

Guetta's installation, consisting of thousands of items, corresponds with the coral world and is influenced by the beauty, shape and texture of the coral reef. The exhibition will be shown in the gallery for changing exhibitions in the museum and will be open to the public of museum visitors. The exhibition invites visitors to experience the underwater world and be amazed by it, observe the beauty of the coral reef and marvel at the complexity and uniqueness of this important habitat, which is usually hidden from our eyes.

Get to know the fascinating life story of the stone corals

The coral reef is a complex ecosystem, full of animals and movement, which is constantly shaping and changing due to the interrelationships between the creatures that inhabit it and long-term evolutionary processes. According to Dr. Nega Sokolovar, the scientific curator, "the exhibition brings to center stage the fascinating life story of the stony corals, the way in which they build the reef slowly and steadily, over thousands of years, as they face threats, dangers and countless disturbances. Understanding the basic biological processes that create the complex fabric of life in the reef, reveals to us the severe damage that has occurred in recent years to the stony corals and the reef as a whole, and makes it clear to us why and how we must preserve this unique habitat. The Natural History Museum has a center for the study of marine biological diversity, and the exhibition was created from the existing knowledge in the marine center, with many of the images in the exhibition being based on the research activities of Dr. Tom Schlesinger, a researcher at the museum and an award-winning nature photographer.

"Discover mesmerizing and meditative beauty"

The installation "Parallel Universe" invites visitors to a space where the boundaries between the natural and the artificial are blurred. Guetta's work repeats and emphasizes the connection between art, design and science. According to curator Limor Margolis, "the installation was created as a reflection on the complexity, beauty and fragility of the underwater natural world - a parallel world, hidden from view, secret and alluring, where unique creatures, breathtaking landscapes and fascinating natural phenomena exist.

The work is a beating heart in the center of a space The exhibition, and visitors to the exhibition are invited to enter it, move within it, become a part of it and discover a mesmerizing and meditative beauty, similar to diving into the depths of the sea among coral reefs." Guetta's work process on this installation lasted about two and a half years, and included meetings with scientists and the curators of the collections at the Natural History Museum. The installation, specially prepared for the exhibition in the museum, was composed of thousands of small parts, textile sculptures with homogeneous organic textures, created by handcraft and creative processes whose complexity corresponds to the formation of coral reefs. Fabric is the basis of Guetta's creation, to which he adds advanced scientific developments that he created, which were registered as international patents.

The work emphasizes the importance and uniqueness of coral reefs and the processes of life formation in the face of the dangers of extinction and death, with the desire to encourage visitors to preserve the reefs for the future.

"Art and design make knowledge accessible and enhance the experience"

The director of the Steinhardt Museum of Nature, Alon Span: "The Museum of Nature continues to develop the connection between science, culture and art. Our goal is to bring visitors closer to the world of science and nature in a variety of ways, where art and design make knowledge accessible and enhance the experience. The initial idea for an exhibition that combines science and art arose in a meeting with Tzuri Guetta at the Israeli art fair "Trei Color" in 2019, where he presented a sculpture of Almog Malbin. Since then we have developed the idea of how to tell the story of the reefs and the danger they face, but also to bring the audience closer to the beauty and power of the corals' underwater world.

Guetta, an Israeli artist with international recognition and success, has been working on his work for years in the underwater world of corals." The artist and designer, Tzuri Guetta: "The sea was our playground, and as a child growing up in Givat Olga, it instilled in me a curiosity for new textures. The choice of coral as a source of inspiration is an unconscious choice, I am not clear if I chose it or it chose me. The choice to exhibit in Israel is from the closing of a circle - an exhibition that is a retrospective of nature. This is a sequence of photos of everything I received from nature at my point in time - 'the generous coral'. In the current period, the exhibition provides diving underwater while the waves confuse us."