Artists: Renana Aldor, Gili Avissar, Chen Cohen, Karen Dolev, Yael Serlin
Body Becomes a Place comprises five solo exhibitions created over the past year as part of the Pais Incubator of Dana Art Gallery, Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. Each exhibition relates to the human body as a channel for processing pain and loss, whether personal or collective, or for healing and rehabilitation. The works engage with various media and artistic practices that involve the body. Some artists refer to their own bodies, while others collaborate with groups to create shared physical experiences. Some use techniques from movement and dance practices to produce sophisticated, well-planned choreographies, while others incorporate speech and singing, exploring the use of the human voice. Some artists draw inspiration from Western therapeutic approaches, such as Anthroposophical spiritual science or the Bach Flowers healing method, while others echo religious sources.
Each artist offers a distinct perspective on the human body as a means for inner exploration. Renana Aldor collaborates with a group of dancers to recreate a memory of the eurythmy performance “Genesis,” which she recalls from her childhood at an Anthroposophical school. This work portrays the Creation story and the expulsion from Eden, while depicting a sobering reflection on the challenges of growing up. Chen Cohen processes text from a television interview with a grieving mother who lost her daughter, transforming it into a lament where she embodies the role of the mother yearning for divine comfort. Yael Serlin documents in a two-channel video installation two performative actions, personal and collective, taking place in both interior and exterior sites within a kibbutz—specifically in an abandoned dining hall and a plowed field — places that symbolize pioneering and kibbutz values that have been abandoned. Gili Avissar sews, unravels, and re-sews wearable textile objects. His body seeks meaning and a safe place to dwell through a circular movement of disassembly and reassembly, construction and destruction, covering and exposure. Karen Dolev creates a garden-like space of abstract color fields that convey the properties of twelve wildflowers that, according to the Bach Flowers method, have medicinal qualities for balancing various emotional states, establishing a refuge with an almost transcendental quality.
Together, the five exhibitions create a series of enigmatic spaces and rituals that connect to the roots of human existence, portraying a prayer or perhaps a longing for spiritual elevation.
