These are not easy days for Israelis in the world in general and in New York in particular, but here is some relief.
The piece "The Keys", 2010 by the artist Ilit Azoulay, a graduate of the department of photography and the M.F.A. degree program in arts, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem, joins an impressive collection of groundbreaking and rare works of art displayed among the outstanding artists of the world even in this difficult time.
The piece "The Keys" deals with the unconventional use of everyday objects to build house walls, a use that was common during the austerity period after the establishment of the State of Israel. Azoulai refers in her work to a number of narratives that exist in the local material culture. Ilit Azoulay, (52) is an Israeli artist who works in Berlin, and exhibits in some of the most important museums and exhibition spaces in the world. Her work began with direct photography, but over the years it developed into a digital and multi-layered creation, which, along with advanced photography technologies, also includes historical and anthropological studies in archives, collections and architectural sites.
Great interest worldwide
In her work, "The Keys", Azoulay reveals the retrospective meaning found in the texture of walls and discarded materials that no longer serve their functional purpose. In each composition, everyday items and waste that were uncovered and classified by Azoulay as alternative construction materials are presented, embedded between the walls of buildings built during the austerity period after the establishment of the State of Israel.
Her encounters with the buildings led her to a distinct and intriguing phenomenon in their walls, where she found a variety of objects that were used instead of blocks of cement. By repositioning her findings in her studio, in front of her lens and under a critical gaze, Azoulay addresses the shelf life of the existing national narratives, and relates them to the material longevity and meaning found in the diverse nature of the remains extracted from their original environment. In this way Azoulay sheds light on the archival act as being able to re-contextualize the mechanisms of vision and memory through the prism of aesthetic, cultural and historical values.
"The Keys" has garnered a lot of interest and has already been shown in a variety of exhibitions around the world including the Andrea Maislin Gallery in New York, the Rotund Gallery in Zurich, the Contact Photography Festival of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto, the Australian Center for Contemporary Art in Melbourne and other places.
After a long acceptance process with several committees and votes, approval was received to accept the work "The Minions" into the Guggenheim Museum collection.
Ilit Azoulay: "Reality is complex and contains different faces and different story angles, far beyond what we are told in the media, just like in archeology where the study on the surface comes from the deeper layers. I feel that this is a time when the ability to contain complexity is immeasurably important, and I pray that movements like 'Stand Together' will continue to grow stronger and bring real and profound change to the political and social reality in Israel."