Savyon Shenhar

In search for silence, for “nothing”, we escaped to the desert and to the forest, where the forces of life and death are so apparent. We have looked for places where the transcendent is present, in nature and within us. Through videos, images, physical practices and writing, we explored different states of the body: living, growing and still. We created funeral rituals in which we are dying, moaning and documenting. We sacrificed ourselves to earth, connecting to the glorious creative power of the nature.

The abstract space of our encounters became an artistic matter. And so, we aimed to create a space for unmediated meeting in the gallery space, for the audience. We aimed to blur the boundaries of behavior in the gallery, to challenge the regular “normative” set of  practices of gallery audience, to offer the audience not only a spectator experience, but a much more holistic experience. We created close-to-the-ground-tables, with pillows aside, where one could seat with a friend, a stranger, a group, or himself. In order to make the audience’s discussions around the small tables inspired by our interests – we placed a pack of cards on each table, each card is a poem written by us that catches a question or sensation or insight that we had experienced together. People practiced their own interpretations of using the cards. Suddenly, the words on the cards became performative. They gained a mystical power thanks to the audience’s actions. Both our physical practices and words became transformative tools. The space became larger, not only because of the nature images, but also as a container of event. At the same time, also the audience became fully present and active.

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