Place Relations: Identity in Contemporary Israeli Avant-Garde Art
Place Relations is a new programming initiative that will take shape as an ongoing exhibition and performance series exploring notions of cultural identity from a variety of places around the world. The inaugural iteration Place Relations: Identity in Contemporary Israeli Avant Garde Art will feature a shifting roster of artists from Israel whose rotating work will be placed in a series of conversations with one another. By providing audiences with an array of diverse individual perspectives shaped by varied and unique experiences, CEPA’s goal is to elaborate upon, broaden, and humanize the unique historical, political, and cultural atmosphere of the Israeli diaspora. We hope to prompt critical engagement and an open dialogue about the ways in which identity is shaped by culture, and in turn, how notions of identity come to reshape culture.
Place Relations: Identity in Contemporary Israeli Avant Garde Art will feature work by Re’em Aharoni, Yael Bartana, Tamy Ben-Tor, Miki Carmi, Keren Cytter, Dor Guez, Adi Nes, Barak Zemer and a screening of work by Guy Ben-Ner. In addition to the many full scale gallery installs, there will be additional film screenings and other related programming throughout the run of the exhibition.
These projects and performances will examine the role of the avant-garde as an indicator of shifting currents in the larger cultural landscape. Through individual perspectives, viewpoints that have been shaped by the experiences of those living amidst the current political and cultural circumstances of Israel, the exhibition seeks to deconstruct and dismantle the stereotypes and preconceptions that often dominate the larger global understanding about those who hail from the region.