Israel's art roundup: Hadrian’s Helmet and Pozner’s heart

TEL AVIV

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 – Attend the opening of Hadrian’s Helmet, a solo exhibition by Matan Ben Cnaan (curated by Dr. Doron Luria). Ben Cnaan is an award winning realistic-figurative painter and studied under great artists who championed this shift in Israeli art, among them Israel Hershberg and Aram Gershuni. The exhibition deals with biblical themes, portraits, landscapes, and still life.

8 p.m., 2 Moshe Maor St. Tel Aviv, 1st Floor. Free admission. Until Saturday, October 26.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 – Come get a piece of Marina Pozner’s heart at the opening event of the Kibbutzim College of Education Art Based Research (ABR) program year-end exhibition. During her performance, she will gift patrons with fresh bread and butter as a symbolic heart-offering. Alongside Pozner, Maayan Dekel will offer a musical performance on Tibetan Singing Bowls (curated by Dr. Hadara Scheflan Katzav). The ABR program is part of the Visual Orientation department. The exhibition includes various artworks by recent graduates.

7 p.m. opening with the performances held at 8 p.m. Ahozat Beit Gallery, 4 Ahozat Beit St., east entrance, Gate 5, behind the pharmacy. Free admission. Opening Hours: Sunday to Thursday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Until Thursday, September 20.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 – Take a free noon Tai Chi class offered as part of Loving Art, Making Art on the rooftop of Beit Benyamini.

Taught by Master Eyal Eizenberg, this event is a part of This is Where I Leave You, a solo exhibition by Joy Bernard (curated by Hadassa Cohen).

The center of the exhibition is a short film that offers a celebration of writing, dance, and music in the context of the different ways that the human body meets and deals with grief. Bernard will meet the audience and discuss her work at noon on Saturday, September 21.

The Tai Chi Class will be offered at 17 HaAmal St. on the roof of Beit Benyamini. The Hebrew talk will be offered at 6 Shvil HaMeretz St. at Alfred Gallery. Shown from Thursday, September 9 (8 p.m. opening) to Saturday, October 5. Admission is free.

EIN HAROD

BEIT STURMANN MUSEUM – The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. By that point in time, anyone who cared to know already knew about the Gulags and the brutality of the alleged Worker’s Paradise.

In The Split, the viewer is invited to re-examine a unique moment in Israeli history. The USSR supported the creation of the State of Israel along with the US. Mapai, the ruling party led by David Ben-Gurion, was adamant that the Jewish state ought to be an ally of America. Mapam, on the other hand, thought that Israel should be an ally of the Soviet Union – or, at the very least, not to be seen as an outpost of Europe and its former colonial empires in the Middle East.

Fifteen artists present artworks dealing with this split in the Kibbutz Movement, which is why there are two Ein Harods today: Ein Harod Meochad (united) that supported Mapai and Ein Harod Ichud (union) that supported Mapam.

While this might bring to mind the famous joke about why a Jew needs two synagogues (to have one he never goes to), the exhibition is also an attempt to push back against how the past is constantly erased.

“We are a very ancient people”, said the painter Yair Garbuz, who presents in this exhibition as well – “and we are also a very forgetful people.”

Another outstanding exhibition that deals with Communism is Kibbutz Sometimes at Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod. Curated by Avi Lubin, the exhibition offers a variety of works by the late Dov Heller.

A member of Kibbutz Nirim in the Western Negev, he sang the anthem “The Internationale” calling for the masses to break their yoke and waved the Soviet red flag on Worker’s Day, May 1. A Jewish child in Nazi Europe, Heller’s life was saved when the Red Army marched into Bucharest.

The museum was not divided during the historical Ein Harod split so both kibbutzim share it.

The Split, from Friday, September 6. Ein Harod Meochad. NIS 40 per ticket. Opening Hours: Sunday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call (04) 648-6328. 

Kibbutz Sometimes, Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod. NIS 46 per ticket. Opening Hours: Monday to Thursday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call (04) 648-6038 for more info. 

HOLON

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 – Last day to see the graduate exhibition at the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT). Works by some 200 graduate students are on display at three different galleries. One series of works, by Doron Artzi, focuses on the tragic events of the October 7 Hamas attack from a unique perspective. On that date, a kite festival was meant to take place at Kfar Aza.

Artzi created colorful kites that reveal how families from the Gaza border communities protected their loved ones during the horrific attacks.

Curated by lecturer and HIT faculty member Adi Karelitz, Artzi presents her works within the context of the Visual Communication department.

Opening on Thursday, August 29 at 7 p.m. 52 Golomb St. Free Admission. Opening Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Call (03) 502-6666 for more info.

HAIFA

ELLA LITTWITZ presents a soundtrack to the “War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness” scroll, written in the first century and hidden among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scroll is a play-by-play manual on how the various forces will take to the field, curator Dr. Kobi Ben-Meir told The Jerusalem Post.

“They were meant to be blown by the Cohanim, the priests,” he said, “and the sounds would tell the battalions where to march to.”

In For Chaos They Yearn, shown at the Haifa Museum of Art (HMA), Littwitz combines the soundtrack for the end of the world with carefully placed salt pillars harvested from the bottom of the Dead Sea.

The salt pillars decompose in the open air and appear to be weeping, forming imaginative colors and shapes.

In From the Dark, Lihie Talmor offers a stunning selection of works in the seldom-seen technique of photo-etching. Born in Mandatory Palestine, this is the first exhibition by Talmor at HMA.

In her work Break-Line a dark, menacing sinkhole seems to capture our gaze as the Dead Sea hovers above it.

Both exhibitions seem to fit political theorist Michal Givoni’s concept of “Ceremonial Collapses”, expressions crafted by an artistic community currently facing the unique feeling its future had been taken away – and must process intense mourning as a result.

26 Shabtai Levi St. NIS 35 per ticket for the tour. Call (04) 603-0800 to book.

Art Roundup is a monthly glance at some of the finest art exhibitions and events currently shown across the country. Artists, curators, and collectors are welcome to send pitches to hagayhacohen@yahoo.com with “Art Roundup” in the email subject.