Curator: Shlomit Bauman
Photographs: Ilan Amihai
Translation to Arabic: Hermes – translation and production – Nabia Bashir
Mitelpunkt, in this exhibition, allows smoke to penetrate her ceramic tiles, an act that traps a material reality, maps and provides evidence. These tiles are created as a tribute that bridges her being a mother to Itamar, her autistic son who suffers from epilepsy and her existence in a broader hard reality that is silenced and occurs minutes from us. In this hybrid situation, Mitelpunkt sets out on a journey to the Palestinian village Kedum, in order to smoke her ceramic tiles in the burning tires set alight in the demonstrations on Fridays: an act that challenges the distorted reality considered normal.
Her attempts to fire her ceramic tiles are often unsuccessful and the image of the almond tree at the heart of the installation, distorts the basic tenet of our local reality, in our desire for a different approach. Bearing this in mind and putting herself in real danger, the artists examines the artistic action and its implications connecting the act to the meaning and its metaphor. This connection contrasts the absurd reality of Israeli ”normality” , the collective autism of our society and the routine of her private life. The meeting exposes sensitivity, a unique inner strength and the feeling of impotence, which appears to be merely a convulsion.
Assistance in making the tiles: Keren Shimon, Rahel Rozines, Nur Eylon
Thanks to the residents of the village of Kedum
About Hagar Mitelpunkt:
Born in 1968, lives in Mazkeret Batya.
Over the last decade works in the fringe of the contemporary art scene.
An activist ceramic artist who through her art making studied in formal and informal institutions including The Kibbutz Seminary (a degree in creative education) and the Midrasha of Art Beit Berl (individual program guided by various artists). Mitelpunkt formed a group of artists called ” The Backyard”. She has participated in solo shows –The Pink Line at the Kibbutz Gallery, Untitled Exhibition in a building site near Bilu junction, as well as group exhibitions in recognized galleries and experimental locations.
