Body images in contemporary Israeli sculpture
Curated by Liav Mizrahi, Tel Aviv
27 November 2011–19 February 2012
Opening:
Sunday, 27 November 2011, 11:30 h
Georg Kolbe Museum
Sensburger Allee 25
14055 Berlin
Hours:
Tue–Sun 10–18 h
T (+49-30) 304 21 44
F (+49-30) 304 70 41
info@georg-kolbe-museum.de
www.georg-kolbe-museum.de
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“Body without Body” is a group exhibition with works by contemporary Israeli sculptors, curated by Tel Aviv-based artist Liav Mizrahi. Concerning his motives in developing an exhibition concept that takes into account the specific context of the Georg Kolbe Museum, he explains: “The personal experience during my stay in Berlin and the involvement with Georg Kolbe’s sculpture made me think about the representation of the body in contemporary art. In the 1920s Paul Schilder, a German psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, coined the term ‘body image’ (Körperschema). He argued that the body is a tool that can expand and contract. Schilder further claimed that all that comes into contact with the body is loaded with libidinal-narcissistic energy effectively making the object a part of the body. ‘Body image’ is thus constituted by the relationship between its corporality and the objects linked to it: hat, towel, prosthesis, bed and so on. Similarly, young Israeli artists represent historically, socially, politically and artistically layered visions of the body. In my opinion, these layered visions uncover this generation’s unconscious experience of wars in Israel. In addition, contemporary Israeli art includes almost no figurative sculpturing to build from. Most of these artists fragment the body: they cut, mutate, degenerate, and crucify the human figure. This abstraction could be linked to the Biblical commandment: ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol.’ Furthermore, it echoes the Third Generation of Israeli art, with its emphasis on Paucity of Material.
The exhibition ‘Body without Body’ draws attention to an abstract form of sculpture inspired by the body or objects connected with it. The body may appear as a fragment or disappear entirely. The body is a remindful body, it brings global and local, private and collective events to mind. The exhibition opens up a space for these intertwined images of the body.”
Participating artists
Elad Armon
Lea Avital
Avital Cnaani
Amir Fattal
Varda Getzow
Erez Israeli
Gabi Kricheli
Liav Mizrahi
Ariel Reichman
Ariel Schlesinger
Danny Yahav-Brown
Gil Yefman
With generous support of the Israeli Embassy in Germany, the Ursula Lachnit-Fixson Stiftung Berlin, Rafael Roth and the Friends of the Georg Kolbe Museum.
Georg Kolbe-Museum is located in the former studio-building of the sculptor Georg Kolbe (1877–1947) in Berlin-Westend close to the Olympic Stadium dedicated to the art of sculpture. Created from the estate of Georg Kolbe, this was the first foundation of a new museum in West Berlin in 1950. It was built in 1928 based on designs by Kolbe by Ernst Rentsch and borders on a sculpture garden that is a protected monument as is the whole ensemble. An annex was added in 1996, in order to meet the increased need for professional storage and the continued growth of the exhibition operations.
Press Contact Georg Kolbe-Museum:
presse [at] georg-kolbe-museum.de
*Image above:
Courtesy of the artist and Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin/Ljubljana.
