Safe Shore / State of Emergency
We are currently living in a state of emergency, as described by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. This is a state in which the government presents the limitation of personal liberties as an inevitable step for maintaining national freedom. Different from situations of anarchy or chaos, the suspension of law is given legal basis. This practice has become central to many democratic countries. Western democracy have developed a tendency not to declare a state of emergency explicitly.
In these situations, the state's suspension of democratic law is justified as a necessary means of protecting democracy and keeping its citizens safe. This context enables the authorities to pass 'special' or 'temporary' laws that create a no-man's-land between the political and the legal. These so-called states of emergency often contain hidden traces of more radical aspirations for policing the relationship between civil life and the law. They are built upon the desire to suspend existing laws in order to enable the government to control people’s lives more effectively. Generating states of emergency is a way of creating an atmosphere of normalcy by validating a sense of control.
The exhibition presents the various ways in which contemporary Israeli artists deal with this 'state of emergency'. Israeli art often touches on political issues and tries to cope with the country's complex and multifaceted reality. The artworks presented in this exhibition describe the physical and psychological world that generated following this situation. They reveal the ripples and turmoils that disrupt the surface of a seemingly structured, well-organized reality. The Israeli placebecomes a disrupted arena, on the verge of destruction, a dramatic testimony of the events that were forced upon it. The works react to the presence of the regime and the ways in which it asserts its power over civilian life. It is art made to critique, to examine the hegemony through a prism of deep skepticism, and to expose what the predominant consensus tries to obscure and conceal.
Participating artists: Larry Abramson, Ronit Agassi, Peleg Dishon, Avraham Eilat, Danil Gertman, Ben Hagari, Orly Hummel, Shiri Matalon, Adi Nes, Miri Nishri, Aviva Ori, Adam Reynolds, Hanan Sade, Doron Solomons, David Tartakover, David Wakstein, and Guy Yechiely.
Curator: Limor Alpern Zered