The first Haifa Mediterranean Biennale of contemporary art. 18.02

18 February 2010 - 6 April 2010
Etichete

The first Haifa Mediterranean Biennale of contemporary art is an international event initiated by Belu-Simion Făinaru – a Romanian born Israeli artist, the curator and artistic director of the biennale. Held in Northern Israel, an area that is usually on the fringe of the main art and culture scene, the biennale targets both professionals and the sections of the public who don't usually visit museums and galleries. The event provides this well-deserving audience the opportunity to experience cultural events that are held in the periphery of the country and are part of its urban fabric. The Biennale, opening on February 18, will be held for two months in downtown Haifa, near the harbor, in the area known as the Harbor Campus.
The works of art are displayed inside shipping containers that are integrated into the vibrant urban space of the city's downtown. The containers, themselves basic and efficient units used for the transportation of goods between countries in the age of global economy, become an alternative display space and a symbol for the search for personal and cultural identity, while referring to the now and the urban dimension.

The Biennial's theme is the concept of Household Goods. This concept opens the discussion to questions of identity, time, place and individualism in the age of global culture and a consumer society swayed by market trends. In this age, art and culture have become a mirror of great wealth, a venue for investment and a motivation for ostentatious social gatherings. Meanwhile, the questions of personal identity, originality and the place of localized culture remain unanswered and open for debate. There is a growing need to refer to The Real Life. A place for thoughts of the un-known and what cannot be known, what cannot be bought or sold, a state of a-commercialism, should hold center-stage.
More than 40 Israeli and international artists take part in the Biennale, creating thus a platform for dialogue through art; among them are Christian Boltanski, Chantal Akerman, Amos Gitai, Micha Ullman, Kyoko Ebata, Herman Van Ingelgem, Jumana Manna.
With the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv, six of the best contemporary Romanian artists exhibit their works in the Biennale: Dan Perjovschi, Matei Bejenaru, Alexandra Croitoru, Sebastian Moldovan, Ciprian Mureşan, Victor Man.
Dan Perjovschi is a visual artist who mixes drawing, cartoon and graffiti in artistic pieces (drawn directly on the exterior walls of the shipping container) witilly commenting on current political, social or cultural issues debating identity – exclusion, belonging, solidarity and more. In the context of debating House(hold), how does a community relate to "The Other" and how does the identity-alterity apparatus function at the community level? Alexandra Croitoru's interactive project, Immigrant, discusses the attitude toward foreigners and the need to build our identity relating to the others, but also the increasing xenophobic attitude that can be perceived around us. In Ciprian Mureşan's video (De)liberated gestures, in which five soldiers silently peel potatoes for almost an hour, the gesture is monotonous, un-sensational, the characters are part of the collective history, yet, according to Romanian art critic Raluca Voinea, the video becomes at the same time a rite of remembrance and a fresco of a troubling present. The artist has also represented Romania in the Venice Biennale last year. Cancer Sprouts, the installation created by Sebastian Moldovan, dedicated by the young artist to his father and uncle, is based on his own childhood memories, when the father was away, working in Israel. Victor Man's installation, Untitled (model with bird waste for how to split ideals and walls), 2009, concrete and bird waste, is a part of a larger on-going project. It operates as „a springboard for a murky set of possible narratives" about the possibilities of co-existence. Matei Bejenaru was in Haifa a few months ago to interview foreign workers in Israel - Romanian women who had come to Israel to care for elderly people. His photo-video work, From Afar/De departe, documents their living with the elderly and caring for them. As the artist remarks upon, "living in such a different world, unable to read or to speak, unable to have a social life, unable to rise above the condition of the immigrant worker, one is doubly estranged, both in relation to the outside world, and in relation to oneself... "

More details on the Bienale: www.haifabiennale.co.il

More information about the Romanian artists participating in the Biennale:
- Matei Bejenaru: www.periferic.org
- Alexandra Croitoru: www.andreianamihail.com/artisti/a_croitoru1.htm
- Victor Man: www.plan-b.ro/index.php?/victor-man/
- Sebastian Moldovan: sebastianmoldovan.ro
- Ciprian Mureșan: www.plan-b.ro/index.php?/ciprian-muresan/
- Dan Perjovschi: www.perjovschi.ro

Artists participating in the Biennale: Albert Kliest, Alexandra Croitoru, Angel Vergara, Angelika Sher, ‪Anna Anders, Ergin Cavusoglu, Etti Abergel, Buky Schwartz, Bohtaina Abu Milhem, Matei Bejenaru, Belu-Simion Fainaru, Benny Efrat, Jumana Manna, ‪Dan Perjovschi, Dani Karavan, Hale Tenger, Herman Van Ingelgem, Victor Man, Israel Wertman, Muhammad Said Kallash, Moldovan Sebastian,‬‬‪ Mounir Fatmi, ‪Mekhitar Garabedian, Micha Ullman, Meirav Heiman, Mannal Mahamid, Maria Papadimitriou, Mariko Asai, Nezaket Ekici, Nati Shamia, Opher Port Workers, Amos Gitai, Ciprian Muresan, Carina Diepens, Kyoko Ebata, ‪Knafo Klimor Architects, Christoph Brech, Christian Boltanski, Raed Bawaya, Runi Zarawi, Chantal Akerman.