[From the opening speech of the “Aesthetics and Bias” exhibition in Arsenal Gallery, Poznan, Poland – May 7th, 2018]
Every one of us has her or his preferences. I mean, each one does have her or his own family, friends, and neighborhood. So, why should our loyalty to those we have our preferences for be pushed aside or be considered petty?
A healthy society must not obscure its differences. A healthy society must not saturate its differences, whether they are ethnic characteristics, sexual characteristics, religious or national characteristics, and dissension must be allowed!
Art, it may pose and compose, but not in order to integrate or erase, rather, in order to expose the unrealized points of view. Whatever the differences, they must remain as vital components of each and every one’s existence. Differences are good!
[Interview, May 7th 2018]
I did not expect this project to become so prominent and long lasting. It was launched, in 2008, during the Polish Year in Israel, in collaboration between Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and the Academy of Art in Kraków.
It was Teresa Śmiechowska, now head curator of the Jewish Historic Institute, in Warsaw, who suggested I contribute to the Polish Israeli Year, as she was aware of my close affiliation with many Polish people. Oh, yes, my grandparents lived in Poland until the beginning of the 20th century, but my current relationship with Poland began in 2000, when Władysław Kaźmierczak, who was, then, director of the “Castle of Imagination”, invited me to perform in his festival. A year later, in 2001, I met a group of lovely Polish artists in Minsk, Belarus – Zbigniew Warpechowski, Jan Świdziński, Waldemar Tatarczuk, and Janusz Bałdyga. My meeting these good persons had motivated my ongoing relationship with Poland.
This project, “Aesthetics and Bias”, was originally conceived for young Israeli and Palestinian artists. The idea evolved together with Nissreen Najjar, when I was a guest teacher at Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts & Culture, in Bethlehem, but, unfortunately, the time was not, and is still not, ripe for such a project.
From 2008 until 2018 “Aesthetics and Bias” has been conducted with the support of Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, where I teach, and in collaboration with the three Academies of Art, in Krakow, Wroclaw, Warsaw, and the University of Art in Poznan. Our final and last exchange took place during 2016, but until that year there had been exchanges every year, and we produced each one, together, me and my Polish collaborators, with great pleasure. We did have to economize on many aspects of the project – for example: people stayed at each other’s homes, instead of hostels, and I prepared some of the meals, instead of eating at restaurants – but these situations facilitated a social familiarity which enabled integrity in the discussions, workshops, and in creating art.
Now, a book titled Aesthetics and Bias will be published in 2018, by Arsenal Gallery, in Poznan, with the help of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw. In 2019, the Aesthetics and Bias exhibition will be presented in Israel and – with these summit events – I will have brought “Aesthetics and Bias” to its completion.
Some of the works presented in this exhibition set raw materials together, where one could assume it cannot be done: cement and watermelon, tar and olive oil. In other works, the artists were not shy in confronting their sentiments: Eyal sings a Yiddish tune as he used to sing with his grandmother, and Renana created, in miniatures, her grandmother`s home. The outcome is far from kitsch – it is enlightening.
I’m surprised with what a nice exhibition this is. There’s a magic to it, and a statement. It is so important that art bear a message. At the opening of the exhibition I said: ‘We are not alike; we are different, everyone is different, and we need not be alike. There shouldn`t be any motive which will make people alike. Let everyone come from another places, have different opinions and let us hold on to our conflicting views’.
Pertaining to art, it must, in its various metaphoric manners, generate discussions. Where there is no discussion, there is no progress, and therefore no reconciliation.