The love of making art

Smorgasbord of artistic work goes on display next week in more than 60 galleries, museums across TA for three-day cultural extravaganza.

By BARRY DAVIS
Art exhibition (photo credit: Courtesy)
Art exhibition
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The Beatles may have suggested that there is parity between the love you make and the love you take, but in Tel Aviv, at least for three days, the accent will be on an outpouring of affection that generates something on the more creatively aesthetic side.
The three-day Loving Art Making Art Festival (September 8-10) will offer residents of Tel Aviv and Jaffa, and anyone willing to commute from farther afield, a close look at some current local artistic endeavors, as well as plenty of long-standing institutionalized works at some of the more venerable houses of art, such as the Tel Aviv Museum and the Rubin Museum.
The festival takes in more than 60 galleries, museums and exhibition halls. There will also be a number of outdoor shows, with three street displays – The Gordon Show on Gordon Street in north Tel Aviv; the Disruptions show in the Lev Tel Aviv area in the center of the city; and The Service Station exhibition on Yehuda Hayamit Street in Jaffa. All the indoor and outdoor exhibition venues are free.
Director of the Arts Department of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality, Tslilit Ben-Nevat, says the event has grown incrementally over the decade of its existence and is making its mark on the local and national arts scene. “The fact that the festival keeps on expanding, shows how important it is and how much impact it is having,” she says. “The budget today is nine times more than it was when I took on a role in the festival in 2004.”
Considering that state support of culture and the arts is constantly on the wane, that’s a pretty enviable position to be in. “The festival is supported by the Tel Aviv Municipality, which gives us and other cultural events here a lot of assistance,” continues Ben-Nevat. “In Europe and the United States, support for culture is normally around 1 to 1.5 percent of the municipal budget. Our municipality sets aside around 5 to 6 percent of its budget for the arts. That is fantastic.”
There is an impressive selection of artistic works – from the plastic and visual arts disciplines with some sonic creations thrown in for good measure – on show over the three days throughout the metropolitan area. Galleries and museums will stay open until 11 p.m. each day, the street shows will be accessible between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., and 240 local artists will open their studios to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Intriguingly, one of the outdoor venues is on Gordon Street, which traditionally has been the hub of the local arts scene, with an abundance of galleries lining the thoroughfare and some of the adjoining streets. However, according to Ben-Nevat, the area could do with something of a leg up.
“Many of the galleries have recently had a makeover, and some younger teams have come in there alongside the veteran places,” she explains, adding that the outdoor exhibits are also designed to draw the public into the galleries. “There is so much artistic enterprise today in places like Yehuda Hayamit Street in Jaffa, so it was important for us to have things going on outside to bring people closer to the studios there.”
Ben-Nevat says the latter fuel the scene as a whole. “They bring the energy and the vibe, and they feed the larger institutions. It is a closed circle.” The Gordon Show, curated by Ravit Harari, will present works by such artists as Einat Arif Galanti, Rimma Arslanov, Sigalit Landau, Shahar Marcus and Hong Kong-born Londonbased artist Suki Chan.
Farther south, the Disruptions exhibition, curated by Sally Haftel Naveh, will unveil the efforts of such artists as Guy Goldstein, Alona Rodeh, Gil Yefman, Tal Frank and Tzachi Buchbut at sites on Rothschild Boulevard – nearer the Herzl Street end quite a distance from the tent city; Albert Square, at the corner of Bezalel Yaffe and Ahad Ha’am streets; and on Mazeh Street, near the galleries operating in the area.
And over “the border” on the Jaffa side, the Service Station show, overseen by curator Dana Tagar-Heller, the street exhibition on Yehuda Hayamit Street running down to Jaffa Port, will utilize spaces normally used for the daily activities of local residents to host a variety of contemporary art by the likes of Avi Berman, Renan Harari, Lior Avizoor, Daniel Landau, Josef Sprinzak, Iris Erez and Tami Lebovitz. The Service Station venue will also host dance shows in the evenings.
Ben-Nevat says the festival is very much the result of a two-way street. “The growth of artistic work here is also a consequence of the fact that we follow developments and trends very closely. For example, there is an increasing number of artists who want to use public spaces as a platform for experimentation or to gain exposure for their work, and we take that into consideration.”
She adds that Loving Art Making Art has blazed a trail that other parts of the country have begun to follow. “The festival started in Tel Aviv when there was no biennial in Herzliya and there was nothing of this kind in Bat Yam or Holon. Only today I saw in the paper that the Holon Municipality announced the design festival there, which will start on September 17, a week after us. And the Menofim [arts festival] started up in Jerusalem a few years ago.
That’s all a reaction to what we started off in Tel Aviv. We took our lead from the arts seasons in the United States and Europe.”
The Loving Art Making Art program also features a number of special events, including The Secret Eight or The Mystery of the Enchanted House exhibition by MA graduates of the Bezalel art school, which will take place on Hisin Street near Habimah Theater.
The Jaffa Port will play host to a multimedia show, Live Music for Moving Images, jointly created by the Hamidrasha Arts School and Muzik School, while there will be an exhibition of works by Palestinian artists at the Jaffa Salon. Elsewhere, artists of the 5-7 Hanegev Street studio will run a program of exhibitions, lectures, shows and videos, and the Camera Solaris project of the Center for Contemporary Art will feature works by guest artists from Austria.
“The festival is designed to provide the maximum exposure for artists in the area,” says Ben-Nevat. “With all the problems we have right now, with the social protests and the security problems, I think people need arts and culture more than ever.”
For more information about the Loving Art Making Art Festival: (03) 724-0870/1 and www.tel-aviv.gov.il


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