Blade Memory

Blade Memory Boaz Arad, Yaron Attar, Michal Bachi, Yaacov Dorchin, Sharon Fadida, Yonatan Geron and Ariel Kleiner, Yizhak Golombek, Elad Haiman, Omer Halperin, Michal Makaresco, Boaz Levental, Amit Levinger, Pearl Schneider, Noa Schwartz, Siona Shimshi, Narkis Vizel, Oded Yaakov Curated by artists Naama Arad, Eran Nave and Ishai Shapira Kalter "Blade Memory" is an exhibition conceived in two chapters. The first chapter, presented at CCA – Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv, will celebrate independent figures in the Israeli art scene and will display artworks that reject the notion of "production." Furthermore, it will be presented through an immersive installation that aims at transforming the pristine white cube space into a collage of scenes and objects that are identified with Tel Aviv: from the streets of the Shapira neighborhood to a semi-abandoned office building in the city center; from cheap plastic window shutters to a Barkan Mounts's TV holder. The second chapter, to be presented at the Dortmunder Kunstverein in Dortmund (Germany) in 2021, will showcase artworks traveling inside suitcases and carried by the curators. This act underlines the desire to prioritize the movement of subjects, over the movement of objects. Therefore, the logistic aspects of the exhibition will acquire a performative tone and its manifestation in Germany will go beyond the premises of the institution, transforming the city of Dortmund into a set, hosting a plethora of minor interventions, ephemeral actions, private gatherings and public events – hosted by the curators, who will be acting as artists in residence. Following the aforementioned conceptual and logistic frame, "Blade Memory" can be experienced either as a group exhibition, a three-person show, or one work of art. This multifaceted position brings to the fore three main modes of operation: appropriating, as often happens with exhibitions curated by artists; blending, perfectly embodied by an exhibition-within-the-exhibition in which a painting show is presented inside a sukkah; and sampling, as described in the collage of scenes from different areas of Tel Aviv and perfectly summarized by the title, a Hebrew expression – זיכרון חרבות [zichron haravot] – which evokes the image of a stabbing memory. "Blade Memory" is supported by Taboola and by the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo – Art Division; special thanks to the Roads & Lighting Department of the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo.