Israeli artist shutters Venice Biennale pavilion in call for hostage and ceasefire deal
Artist Ruth Patir says she’ll open her exhibit, ‘(M)otherland,’ once an agreement has been reached to bring the hostages home and end the war in Gaza
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
While pro-Palestinian activists tried since February to convince the Venice Biennale to ban Israel from this year’s 60th international art exhibition, participating Israeli artist Ruth Patir turned the tables and locked the doors to her exhibition on Tuesday, the first preview day for the event that opens officially on April 20.
“The artist and curators of the Israeli pavilion will open the exhibition when a cease-fire and hostage release agreement is reached,” read the sign taped to the door of the pavilion by the Israeli team.
Israeli artist Patir, with her curators, Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit, said in a statement that they chose not to cancel the exhibition.
Instead, they took a stand in solidarity with the families of the hostages and the Israeli community calling for change.
Patir’s video work, “Keening,” which is part of her full exhibition, “(M)otherland,” is visible through the glass doors and windows of the Israeli pavilion.
“I hate it,” Patir told the The New York Times about her decision not to open the exhibit, “but I think it’s important.”
“As an artist and educator, I firmly object to cultural boycott, but I have a significant difficulty in presenting a project that speaks about the vulnerability of life in a time of unfathomed disregard for it,” said Patir in a statement.
Patir was chosen to represent Israel in the Venice Biennale on September 6, 2023, and the main piece in her exhibition, “Keening,” was conceived of following the painful events of the Hamas onslaught on October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza. There are 133 hostages still held by terrorists in the Strip, not all of them alive.
The Biennale exhibits open April 20 and closes on November 24.
The Bezalel and Columbia University graduate fuses documentary with computer-generated imagery in her works.
Patir’s artworks often start with her own life, and gradually open up to address larger societal issues.
In “Keening,” a video work in the Israel pavilion’s entry level, Patir features computer-generated ancient figurines alongside thousands of fragments left from the originals.
The forlorn, broken women come to life in a grief-ridden procession that eerily looks and feels like one of the many rallies for the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The archaeological female figurines are palm-sized statuettes that have been enlarged and brought to life, in a sense, through 3D animation. Patir works with excavated artifacts of female figurines from the ancient Levant, shards that are typically stored in museum basements.
Patir and her curators, Tel Aviv Museum of Art chief curator Lapidot and Margalit of the Center for Contemporary Art, said they produced the work to mourn the women, Israeli and Palestinian, who lost their lives in the war, and pay tribute to those held in captivity and to those left to pick up the pieces.
They also stated their belief in two states for two peoples, living in peace.
“It has been six months since the brutal attack on Israel on October 7 and the beginning of the horrific war that is raging in Gaza,” said Lapidot and Margalit. “There is no end in sight, only the promise of more pain, loss, and devastation. The exhibition is up and the pavilion is waiting to be opened. The art can wait, but the women, children and people living through hell cannot.”
The rest of the Patir’s exhibit, displayed on the upper two floors of the Israel pavilion at the Biennale, reflect her earlier works, and are even more personal.
Patir was diagnosed as a carrier of the BRCA2 gene mutation in her mid-30s, putting her at risk for breast and ovarian cancer. This pushed her to freeze her eggs for the future.
Patir works with her ancient female figurines in the modern, contemporary setting of doctor’s offices, ultrasound machines and other invasive procedures to show her discomfort and questions about the process and her place in it.
