Beating of Wings

In a reality where voices are heard from all sides on immigration, relocation, and movement from the country beyond its borders, addressing the place and its materials seems self-evident, a choice almost forced upon us.
The exhibition “Beating of Wings” seeks to examine the intergenerational dialogue that deals with the components of local identity. The starting point for the exhibition is the works of Naomi Bitter and the late Nora Kokhavi, a pair of artists who operated from the 1960s to the beginning of the 21st century and addressed universal themes and archetypal and archaeological images (such as coffins, home, boat, bird, etc.).
In Nora and Naomi’s exhibition, “Escape” (1996-1998), their works turned to Israeli landscapes and “cultural heritages.” In the exhibition catalog, the artists were quoted as saying: “Life […] is ‘like living at the foot of a volcano. To know for sure that a day will come and it will erupt. And yet to continue living between blows.'” Today, “[…] when things are bad, we hoist our backpacks on our backs and set out. For us, life in this country is indisputable. We are here and that’s it, for better or for worse. It’s not the same for our children.”
In this exhibition, models of their works are presented alongside contemporary artworks by artists whose dialogue with Nora and Naomi expresses an imaginary zero point, a material conversation that reflects on the meaning of the present.
The beating of wings appears as a powerful symbol in two cultural contexts: one, in the Book of Isaiah, in the prophet’s dedication vision, the angels and seraphim – “each one had six wings… And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy” – creating a moment of revelation and transcendence with their beating wings, a resounding divine presence that prepares the prophet for his mission. And the other – the ‘butterfly effect’ described by Edward Lorenz – the mathematician and meteorologist who laid the foundations for chaos theory in the 1960s – a butterfly’s light wing movement can trigger a chain of events leading to a tornado on the other side of the world. These two symbols share a common insight into the power of tiny movements to create far-reaching effects.
Like that light wing movement that triggers an enormous change, so do the subtle changes in consciousness and the belief in the power of elusive gestures create the possibility of escape, to evade danger and seek shelter. The chasm that has opened up carries within it the possibility of change, like that initial beating of wings. It invites the new generation to shed the weight of material, to observe the effect of the wing movement as it spreads in space.