Familial

The singularity and importance of the Israeli family has been the subject of research and interest since the state’s establishment. The ongoing political instability in the region has created a reality in which the state and its borders are frequently destabilized. In contrast (and perhaps precisely because of this), the family unit has been established as a stable and meaningful framework of the Israeli experience, both practically and metaphorically. This period of war has exemplified and amplified how the Israeli family structure transcends biological boundaries, and expands into an efficient organizational and organic system. In places where the state has faltered, the family, in the broadest sense of the word, has taken on national responsibilities, such as provision, care, and housing. The exhibition “Familial” examines the Israeli family as a national and personal concept, idiosyncratic yet representative, individual and collective, through artworks that stretch the durability and elasticity of the classic family structure.

The group process for this exhibition began before the war began. While the original curatorial vision intended to discuss the complex relationship between family and state, each of the participating artists received freedom to interpret the concept of family as they wished. The artistic products of this process created a mosaic of experiences that come together in an exhibition that does not claim to be absolute or complete, but rather to represent moments with which one can identify: private moments, but also familiar ones. The artists turned to their families – some directly, through the active participation of family members or through the use of personal family archives; and others spiritually, through an intellectual or philosophical examination of the concept – to explore how the family unit is formed, creates histories and fantasies, and gives meaning to the life of the individual through a different form of collectivity.

The double meaning of “Familial” outlines the course of the exhibition. On the one hand, the exhibition deals with inheritance, with what we don’t choose, with the social and biological elements that define what a family unit is. On the other hand, it promotes  subjective and personal definitions of what is considered family and familial, what defines kinship and belonging beyond conventional definitions or historical perceptions. How do different individual identities represent collective and familial identity? How does the family develop and change alongside and in light of an unknown political future? Israeliness itself becomes a broad concept subject to interpretation by artists who approach it through a range of critical lenses. “Familial” explores the structure of the family through a variety of mediums, asking how artists experience and represent this significant and intimate space artistically and critically to reflect a contemporary and complex Israeli reality.