Lines Made by Walking

Formally Speaking

I. Lines Made by Walking  

II. And what shall we do with Painting in the 21st Century?

July 2, 2011 - February 4, 2012

Curator: Ruth Direktor

Under a single umbrella title the two exhibitions wish to draw attention to formalist (or quasi-formalist) issues concerning the language of art. They set out to divert the pendulum from intense engagement with narrative and content to contemplation of art in terms of form or medium. The form will be a line, the most basic in art's reservoir of forms, and the medium-painting, the oldest and most veteran among media. Only that the line is made by walking, and therefore it is permeated with sweat and dust, with physicality and politics, and painting transpires within the scope of artists who also work with photography, sculpture, and video. 21st century formalism is a whole new story: the lines are spawned by walking; painting redefines itself in a post-medium age, and the language of art is already inseparably blended with the juices of life.

Formally Speaking (I): Lines Made by Walking

In 1967 English artist Richard Long walked back and forth on a piece of grassy field until a straight line was created. A black-and-white photograph of the line left by his walk on the grass is the only trace of the poetic-romantic-conceptual act which has become one of the works most etched in the consciousness of land and environmental art.

Inspired by Long's line and the cross between the minimalistic basic form and the physicality of the walking act, the exhibition features works containing manifestations of lines and walking. They draw attention to the formal, physical, and political force innate to walking-meditative walking, walking which is an act of protest, walking as an ecological act, walking as characteristic of the contemporary nomadic condition; walking which creates a line.

For the text about Walks of the 70's click here

Alongside the exhibition there will be the Haifa Walks project. The aim of this project is to connect the city with the museum, and to map the city differently - not according to official maps and divisions but according to walks made by people. These walks are created via personal and biographical walks, via artistic performances, via walks that light unknown places, via memories of people who lived in certain places, via stories of other people.

Artists that will take part in the Haifa Walks are, among others: Anisa Ashkar, Amnon Wolman, Heli Mizrahi, Eifo Dana group, Max group, Duprass, Liras Pank and more.

Maya Shimony's work - "Directions" - is the first of Haifa Walks and it is situated in the Museum itself, suggesting a walk through the exhibitions.