I would like to start out by saying I don’t like art. I don’t like museums. And naturally an art museum doesn’t interest me… But I guess you could say that this art exhibit opened my eyes to something new. The museum was called the Tel Aviv Museum and the exhibit was called, “This Place”. Our tour guide named Julia was originally from Cape Town, South Africa, moved to Israel, then to Washington D.C. to work at a museum, and after seven years she returned to Israel. She explained that the exhibit was done by 12 photographers from many different places around the world. These photographers came to Israel and explored, taking pictures of anything they felt represented the way they saw Israel. This project was created by Frederic Brenner in 2006. Brenner had the idea that through pictures people could understand the complexity of Israel, meaning it’s history, geography, inhabitants, and daily life. Each of the 12 photographers spent at least six months in residence here in Israel developing their artistic styles. Each photographer in his or her pictures showed different aspects of the whole Israeli picture. The part of the exhibit that caught my attention was taken by Martin Kollar. His part of the exhibit contained dark, weird, and very interesting pictures. The pictures (attached) consisted of medical paraphernalia going through the the face of the models. This represented the discomfort of living in Israel.
The exhibit will be making its way to the United States sometime in 2016 where it will be displayed at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, and at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in Brooklyn, New York. But don’t worry, there could be a possibly appearance in Cleveland as additional venues could be announced in the following month. If the exhibit ends up visited a museum near Cleveland, I recommend checking it out.