Exhibitions

The exhibition is centered on The Open Receptacle—a significant gift recently received at Haifa Museum of Art. In this work, one may discern Berman Kadim's transition from two-dimensional to three-dimensional work and his engagement with architecture. The structure of the receptacle is reminiscent of wooden Egyptian sarcophagi, and its proportions are based on the arithmetic ratio used in the design of the Parthenon floor—a Greek temple from the 5th century BCE in Athens, considered the epitome of classical architecture, whose floorplan is painted on the bottom of the receptacle.

Aviva Uri's ability to touch on raw emotion, and the intense expressive quality typifying her work, have made her a highly influential, mythical figure in the history of art in Israel. The exhibition presents an outstanding selection of Uri's works, all from the collection of Haifa Museum of Art.

Haifa Museum of Art, one of the first museums established in Israel, is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. A museum's material heritage is embodied in its collection, in the works it purchased and those donated to it. The works in the collection determine the museum's genetic code, and each new work entrusted for safekeeping joins its predecessors in shaping the museum's identity. This exhibition sets out to decipher the identity of Haifa Museum of Art by delving into its collections, asking where it is headed in the future.

The Bible says: "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain" (Proverbs, 31, 30). It seems our culture prefers to reject this ancient wisdom, preferring the lie and the deceptive outward appearance, as if it were the obvious choice. In this context, art historian Gideon Ofrat writes that "commercials never stop lying to us […] politicians never stop offering false promises before elections, in empty 'visions of peace'; public relations experts and spokesmen have become con-artists on retainers. Wherever we turn, whenever we open our eyes and our ears – lies surround us. It is as if we have accepted non-truth as the verdict of our existence."

Today's art world, in Israel and worldwide, evinces an increased interest in the intersection of art and social activism. Known as artivism, this new form of expression aspires to blend art and activism in equal degree. Contemporary art criticism emphasizes the power of art to function as an arena for political protest. Artistic activism, a new phenomenon that has become a staple of our time, is different from the type of critical art that dominated modernist discourse in the 20th century, as pointed out by curator and philosopher Boris Grois.

The new cluster of exhibitions presents eleven new exhibitions, five of them solo exhibitions and six group exhibitions. The exhibitions presents works by seventy Israeli and international artists. The current cluster of exhibitions deals with the vanishing boundary between the public and private spheres, exhibitionism, narcissism and voyeurism, which are some of the hottest topics of the twenty-first century.

We are currently living in a state of emergency, as described by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. This is a state in which the government presents the limitation of personal liberties as an inevitable step for maintaining national freedom. Different from situations of anarchy or chaos, the suspension of law is given legal basis. This practice has become central to many democratic countries. Western democracy have developed a tendency not to declare a state of emergency explicitly.

The exhibition "A Private Moment in Public" addresses the capture of personal, intimate moments that remove the usual defenses and masks donned in front of the camera. Such intimate moments appearing in the public eye evoke sensations poised between distance and closeness, familiarity and concealment, intimacy and publicity.