MÈRE DIVINE | 2015

DUAL CHANNEL MOVING IMAGE INSTALLATION | C1+2: 12.33 MIN. Sound by Roni Wagner

Set in the French Ratisbon Monastery in Jerusalem, the work reflects upon the transitions of the institute throughout the centuries, before Israel was established as a state. The monastery, built in 1874 in Palestine, has operated as a seminary school, orphanage and place of worship within a land undergoing its own conflict and religious and territorial shifts. The work investigates the possibility of existence within a shifting lands, transitional realities and uncertain matter.

The video depicts the woman on their journey of faith and the constant search for their sense of place. The work is using the recognisable setting of the Ratisbon Monastery in order to shift perspectives, alter rituals, and also question contemporary perception on classical structures, reflecting a greater collective history and our own personal and cultural identities.

Below: Research footage / Jewish children evacuated from Gush Etzion playing in the Ratisbonne Monastery courtyard, 1949. National Photo Collection of Israel, Photography Department, Goverment Press Office.

This Project was part of a solo show in Jerusalem Artist House as the 4th exhibition in the 19th Nidbach series, 2015.

https://www.art.org.il/?exhibitions=4th-exhibition-in-the-19th-nidbach-series&lang=en

MÈRE DIVINE was part of Mario Merz Prize. Finalists exhibition, 2nd edition, 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ejV4WzviE&feature=emb_title

This Project was part of festival Letterature migrantI, Visual Arts Section “Dare il nome”, curated by Agata Polizzi

4-8 October 2017, PALAZZO STERI / Sala delle Verifiche, Palermo

Merz Fondazione participates in the Festival delle Letterature Migranti,Visual Arts Section, which will take place in Palermo from 4 to 8 October 2017 with the Punte Brillanti di Lance Project.
Specifically, it presents at the Palazzo Chiaramonte Steri, headquarter of the Rectorate of the University of Palermo, the video Divine Mother  by artist Gili Lavy (1987).

https://www.festivaletteraturemigranti.it/speaker/gili-lavy/

MÈRE DIVINE was part of a group show ‘Intricate Affinities: ‘Recollections of Western Tradition in Local Contemporary Art’

in The Petach Tikva Museum of Art, PETAH TIQVA | ISRAEL. SEPTEMBER 15, 2016-DECEMBER 15, 2016. Curator: Smadar Sheffi

https://www.petachtikvamuseum.com/en/exhibitions/intricate-affinities-recollections-of-western-tradition-in-local-contemporary-art/

Myriads of threads connect the works comprising “Intricate Affinities” to the past, to multiple pasts, to various traditions in Western art. The web of affinities between past and present in local painting, as reflected in the current exhibition, challenges our idea of the contemporary, exploring cultural, temporal, and spatial perceptions in relation to aesthetic and conceptual arrays in the present.
The question of temporality—an entity that changes states of aggregation— solidifying as consciousness, fluid as memory—is a pivotal axis in the show. Painting is a plausible platform for indicating ambiguities toward the present. Historical allusions are used as a means of distancing, introducing multiple perspectives. The exhibition examines the way in which the use of representation matrices from diverse Western traditions has transformed, whether via thematic or formal shift, or by draining its original iconography.
The show focuses on the pictorial quality—the elusive essence of the works as an object, as material. The paintings are statements, and at the same time—arenas of study and research; a saturated painterly act unfolding in the present, which elicits social, existential, religious, and intra-artistic questions.
Some of the works surrender associations to Christian art, others conduct an ambivalent dialogue with early 19th-century Romanticism and mid-20th-century Abstract Expressionism. Some juxtapose abstract painting with still life in the tradition of Spanish Baroque, others embed the memory of Renaissance utopias.
Vis-à-vis the surge of images increasingly surrounding us, the exhibition wishes to contribute to reconsideration of the painterly medium. The paintings are read as objects in the world, leading to contemplation of the nature of representation and the very ability to observe.
DR Smadar Sheffi.

MÈRE DIVINE was part of NEU NOW 2015 Amsterdam. NEU NOW is an initiative of ELIA – European League of Institutes of the Arts. see below:

http://www.neunow.eu/home/gili-lavy

https://vimeo.com/141784513

NEU NOW – a festival, a creative meeting space promoted artistic excellence and created an international springboard for emerging artists. Every year from 2009 until 2017, the best among graduating artists from across Europe were nominated by institutions, shortlisted by international juries and selected and curated by the co-artistic directors. Both the specific characteristics and the interdisciplinary potential of arts disciplines were showcased through the dynamic presentation of exhibitions, performances, workshops, and artist talks which converged to offer new perspectives. It started as an itinerant festival presented in cities across Europe before settling into a regular venue in Amsterdam.

The pilot edition of the festival was developed as part of the Vilnius European Capital of Culture 2009 celebrations. The NEU NOW concept was viewed as promising, and although the economic crisis created challenges, Carla Delfos, ELIA Executive Director at the time, was motivated to continue to explore different possibilities to further develop this format.