The Fourth Biennale of Israeli Ceramics

Territory and identity – between ceramics and architecture

 

The encounter between ceramics and architecture makes it possible to examine the validity of the value of locality in the global era. The diverse works presented in this exhibit examine the numerous faces of cultural, religious, ethnic and national contexts of our lives.
“Architecture and ceramics are two material disciplines,” says David Knafo, architect and curator of the exhibition. “They design and build our immediate living environment and address our practical needs and spiritual desires. They both curate in material and in space, in shape and color, the aesthetic and cultural values of communities and peoples…therefore this encounter gives an opportunity for critical scrutiny not only in relation to the reciprocal relationship between these two disciplines, but also a broad analysis of cultural creation in both the local and global context.”
The works exhibited in the biennale deal with numerous questions that compose the special relationship between the territorial question and that of identity in numerous contexts: cultural, ethnic, religious and national. Some of the works present criticism of social and cultural norms, and the icons of Israeli architecture (such as the work that presents trisols [an Israeli invention: asbestos shutters with vertical slats]). Others show the clash between Eastern and Western values, and some deal with the relationship between sacredness and geography (tefellin, a group of people standing on a hill in the middle of nowhere, etc.). The concepts of ‘border’ and ‘home’ are presented in other works, such as a house hanging in the air, etc., while others present different expressions of commemoration and memory.

Curator: Architect David Knafo
Opens November 22, 2006, closes April 24, 2007