Curator: Ilana Tenenbaum
Multidisciplinary artist Motti Mizrachi's work embodies the various shifts characteristic of the 1980s. His works bring together mystical symbols taken from Judaism, Christianity and classical mythology together with everyday objects. As a result, these everyday objects acquire a mythical resonance, and the works resemble ritual sculptures belonging to an imaginary culture. During this period, Mizrachi's work came to be dominated by a parallel series of personal, national, social and ideological narratives. Motti Mizrachi is one of the first artists in Israel whose work addresses their Mizrachi origins. During these years, he began creating video works, as well as transgressive performances in which his body served as the arena for dense and heterogeneous performances that express suffering and pain alongside humor, irony and absurdity. This strategy reached its climax in the performance The Year of the Dovewhich was included in the "Tel Hai 80" events - a provocative performance that spoke out in defiance against the heroic myth of Tel Hai. The work Rejoicings 81, which was exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum as part of the exhibition "Turning Point" (1981), included various kinds of performances, including a fashion show, a projection of Geva films from the 1950s, and various kinds of music. In the late 1980s, Mizrachi shifted to figurative sculpture, and his live performances were transformed into sculptural and theatrical ones. The sculpture Angelo Angelo (1986), which represents this period, depicts a running man with axes wedged into his back. This sculpture alludes to Michelangelo's David, and brings together deep mystical themes with their representation in the mass media. Also included is the film 18 Minutes in Jerusalem from the opera The Sacrifice (1984), in which the city of Jerusalem is seen "drowning" in an aquarium.