Space for Community Art: Liron Hana Ohayon & Amit Gavish 6+1

Equipped with white overalls, compassion and courage, Liron Hana Ohayon and Amit Gavish lead an interdisciplinary artistic act in the streets of Haifa. They gathered six women who recently moved to Haifa for a joint creative process, which included a confession and a statement of identity aimed at pushing the boundaries of involvement in the space.

The six video works on view are elaborations of six acts of female healing, whose gist is coping together with personal passions and fears. The acts take place in the urban sphere, which sometimes appears threatening and gloomy, but the participants move through it fearlessly—whether as animals, as gardeners, or as children. They devote themselves to each other and to the space, manipulate it as they please, and devote themselves to the environment, introducing a new Haifa—an imaginary wonderland that is a playground shrouded in constant threat. The multi-generational group of well-intentioned women works together with a playful, at times ritual devotion, in search of redemption for themselves and their habitat. This tribal forum charges simple actions—such as cultivating wild vegetation at the sewer manholes, climbing a fence, and walking-dancing in the street—with spiritual meanings.

In a time of crisis that undermines trust in official institutions, the work explores the importance of civil leadership and the power of good neighbors to save each other. Gavish and Ohayon create an allegory about a nocturnal city, where female artists take responsibility for the public order and offer a common, compassionate matriarchal order, marked by faith in humankind.

Liron Hana Ohayon
1985, Rishon LeZion, Israel; lives in Haifa

Amit Gavish
1995, Tel Aviv; lives in Haifa
The works are courtesy of the artists

Curator: Oz Zloof