So many areas of our everyday lives have been disrupted or even decimated by the unspeakably horrific events of the past month. Many were forced to put their professional activities on hold as they either fled parts of the country that were prone to rocket attacks or, initially, terrorist incursions, or stayed at home to take care of their offspring when schools were shut down.
No one, to begin with, gave too much thought to the arts and cultural activities in general. The immediate order of the day was safety and security, and allowing evacuees and those who lost loved ones to relocate and, hopefully, to find some respite and comfort.
The Jerusalem Biennale, which has been held – come hell or high water – since 2013 was scheduled to open for viewing business across the capital on November 9. That, of course, did not happen but founder and creative director Rami Ozeri has found welcome outlets for the creations that were due to be displayed here.
Instead of locals making the rounds of venues such as the Biennale Gallery in the old Shaare Zedek Hospital building and the Beta Gallery, in the same neck of the woods over on Jaffa Road, now members of the public from much further afield will be able to get up close to works by, for example, émigré Israeli artists living in New York, as well as additional offerings there, in Buenos Aires, Argentina and in Casale Monferrato, Italy.
The Big Apple proxy takes in shows at two venues. The Heller Museum in The Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, in Manhattan, will host works that were earmarked for two Jerusalem Biennale slots, in partnership with the Jewish Art Salon and American Sephardi Federation.
The six female artist presentation, curated by Tel Aviv-based Hadas Glazer, goes by the illuminating name of Activate: A New York Women’s Perspective. The exhibitors engage in divergent art practices and, together, investigate the complexities of life faced by women today. They explore physical and political power, centering on systemic, holistic, female-driven change. In their own singular way, each artist explores the multifaceted expressions of feminine power amid complex and fraught sociopolitical dynamics associated with bodies and heritage, intimacy and otherness, sex, and religion.
Feminine symbolism is a leitmotif of the layout, including such biblical, contemporary, and political spotlights as Lilith, Women of the Wall, the Statue of Liberty, and Jewish themes of Tikkun HaYam (heal the oceans), Kol Isha (woman’s voice), and the current Israeli hostage crisis.ARCHIE RAND has been a fixture on the New York art circuit and in the academic arena for over half a century. His The Seventeen show, curated by Samantha Baskind, was unveiled at the Heller Museum, as was Activate, on the original opening day of the Biennale. For the occasion, Rand focused on familiar and lesser-known female biblical figures as part of his four-decade delve into the Bible and Jewish texts in serialized paintings conceptually informed by 20th-century culture. Activate and The Seventeen close on November 15.
The Hallelujah show at the Laurie M. Tisch Gallery, Marlene Meyerson JCC, in Manhattan, which also opened on November 9 and is due to run through to November 17, is of particular interest to NYC-based Israelis and, by extension, to this Middle Eastern cultural melting pot. Ex-pat Israeli artist Udi Urman curated the collection which, he feels, underscores the critical importance of the bond between Israel and the Diaspora, particularly at this trying juncture.
As immigrants to the United States, the artists – including Noa Charuvi, Hirut Yosef, and Yehudit Feinstein - found their own path to expressing their longing, fears, and memories. The exhibition highlights the unique ways in which artists can transform individual experiences into resonant and universal truths related to a sense of belonging.Ozeri expresses profound appreciation for the collaborative efforts of his opposite numbers overseas.
“The Jerusalem Biennale was supposed to open on November 9th, 2023,” he says. “With 35 exhibitions showcasing over 200 artists, planned at 22 prestigious venues across the city, preparations were at their zenith. And then everything stopped with a jarring screech.”
Urman’s belief in the robust hands-across-the-water link between Israelis and Diaspora Jewry has been endorsed by communities in the US, Argentina, and Italy, eager to ensure that at least some of the Biennale exhibits make it to the public viewing light of day. “What they are all doing is not at all taken for granted,” Ozeri notes. “It is really heartwarming and very encouraging.”
Over the years Ozeri has taken pains to ensure that the Biennale programming not only incorporates salient topics in the Jewish world, he has also endeavored to keep in step with current developments as a whole. The role and standing of women have increasingly featured in the Jerusalem rollouts, as they do right now in New York, and at the Behind the Mask exhibition, which runs at The Jewish Museum of Casale Monferrato, November 12 to December 3, under the curatorship of Ermanno Tedeschi and Vera Pilpoul.
BUT, AS street-level events gathered pace here, particularly the judicial reforms demonstrations, Ozeri began to have a rethink about the Biennale thematic substratum. “We decided to place a significant emphasis on women, what women represent and bring to the world of art. That was a headline we decided quite some time ago, back in April 2022. But, you know, things here change so rapidly. Then, around half a year ago, we had to determine whether that theme was still relevant in the light of all the protests.”
In the end, Ozeri and his team stuck to the original purview. “We opted to stay with that. The subject of women and feminism is still relevant, at all times and everywhere.”
Healthy outreach to the public
The almost insurmountable challenges of the security situation here, and the ensuing emotional whirlpool, have been exacerbated by the tidal wave of anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric and rallies that has swept across many parts of the world. Ozeri prays the exhibitions abroad will resonate healthily with the public, and be looked at for their artistic content and not be overshadowed by political events.
“I am very anxious,” he confessed when we spoke the day before the shows were due to open. “I hope the public will appreciate the genuine artistic value of the exhibitions, and that doesn’t get swallowed up by all the political noise and the thunder of politics. There are the pro-Israel and pro-Palestine camps. I don’t know how much people will just relate to the art as art.”
Let’s hope so.
Feminism, the place of women in the world today, memory, and intergenerational transmission feature in the shows in the States and Italy. The exhibition in Argentina is poignantly held at the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, where 85 people were killed and 300 wounded when a suicide bombing destroyed the building in 1994. The attack has been blamed on Iranian officials and Hezbollah leaders, with then Argentinean president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner also implicated, although legal proceedings thus far have been inconclusive.
The And These Are The Names installation at AMIA, curated by Tammy Kohn and runs November 7 to 14, is based on the Biennale’s central theme of Iron Flock, to pay tribute to the 1,200 plus victims of the October 7 massacre. Iron Flock is an abbreviated translation of the Hebrew expression “neches tzon barzel’ which infers objects and items of supreme and inalienable cultural and artistic importance.
And These Are The Names also draws a direct line between the victims of the 1994 attack and the horrors of last month’s Hamas murders. “The exhibition creates, in real-time, an inspiring demonstration of what it means to stand in solidarity,” says Ozeri.
Ozeri emphasized that the Jerusalem Biennale has been deferred, not canceled.
“After many conversations with our stakeholders and a great deal of thought, we have decided to postpone the 6th Jerusalem Biennale until Spring 2024,” Ozeri said, ading that plans are already afoot.
“After five successful editions, that always opened on time – even in the year of Covid – now the heart skips a beat. But it will continue to beat. Stronger and stronger. The new target date for the 6th Biennale is March 11, 2024, the first day of the month of Adar. We are already preparing, and in the meantime, we found ourselves busy developing new projects that will take part in the national effort to rebuild everything that needs to be rebuilt, and to blow new and fresh wind in our sails.”