The Meeting Between Art and War

As part of its series of wartime webinars, Tel Aviv University Alumni Organization, led by Sigalit Ben Hayoun, held a panel on the subject of "The meeting between art and war".

The webinar panelists were:

• Dr. Aya Lurie - Director and Chief Curator of Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, and an alumna of Tel Aviv University Faculty of the Arts.

• Avi Lubin - Chief curator of Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod, and an alumnus of both the Law and Management faculties at Tel Aviv University.

• Raz Samira - Deputy Director and Chief Curator of Eretz Israel Museum, Chair of Association of Museums and ICOM (International Council of Museums) Israel, and an alumna of Tel Aviv University Faculty of the Arts.

• Ifat Ashkenazi - Curator of Haifa Museums, and an alumna of Tel Aviv University Faculty of the Arts.

The panel moderator:

• Dr. Tamar Mayer - Chief Curator of Tel Aviv University Art Gallery, a lecturer at the university Faculty of Arts, and an alumna of both the Humanities and Art faculties.

Dr. Aya Lurie stated that:

"Even when the museum was asked to close its gates due to the directives of the Home Front Command (Pikud HaOref), the activities it offered to the audience did not stop for a moment through the work of the education department: with groups in the museum, with communities of evacuees and online. Art is not a luxury and in these difficult days, the museum can offer a protected space (Merkhav Mugan) that invites a respite from the everyday, a dialogue around the exhibitions, and maybe even a little consolation."

Avi Lubin observed that:

"At a time like this, museums should, perhaps even more than usual, combine their various civic roles and offer a place of healing and comfort and at the same time a space that encourages critical thinking and allows one to ask questions, re-imagine, change one's point of view and look at the complexity of reality."

 

"In my opinion, it is of great importance that artists, curators, and cultural figures be involved in the public discourse regarding the question of who we are, and what our values are as a society. It is important to me that in public committees, and also in the many discussions in the television studios, alongside the viewpoints of lawyers, economists, doctors, and military officials, which are frequently heard, the viewpoints of artists and cultural figures on a series of issues that are on the public agenda will also be heard.'

Raz Samira said that:

"Art these days works on two levels—both as a therapeutic that people need and a place to ask complex questions and think about the situation. Museums are a place that exists on long-term processes and usually with a loyal audience, it's not a two-hour show or a play to pass the time, it's a place that requires lingering. The art that is presented these days at Muza (Eretz Israel Museum) does not run away from reality but, on the contrary, confronts it and raises possibilities and ways to experience it and maybe even embrace it."

 

"On the international level, ICOM Israel made several moves, starting with a personal appeal to cultural institutions to screen the 'Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre' film (also unofficially called 'the atrocity film' or 'the film of horrors' in Hebrew) in cooperation with The Abducted and Missing Families Forum, held a Hasbara (which has no direct English translation but roughly means "explaining" in Hebrew) meeting on the state of museums in Israel with ICOM Germany, attended by over 140 people from all over Germany, we appealed to the ICOM in a letter signed by all museum directors in Israel requesting condemnation of Hamas actions on October 7, 2023, we appealed to the Brooklyn Museum for selling pro-Palestinian materials at their fair, which they took off the shelf and came out with an apologetic statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry asked to use the letters we send to embassies as part of Hasbara material. These days another letter went out to the ICOM administration following a unilateral announcement about the demolition of 100 heritage sites, which Israel allegedly destroyed in the West Bank according to a problematic study, of which many were in fact destroyed by Hamas by digging tunnels or bunkers underneath them for storing weapons."

Yifat Ashkenazi added that:

"The war that broke out and upended our lives obliged us as producers of culture and art to respond and act in the face of the new situation. The Haifa City Museum quickly mobilized (in less than a month) to produce content and space that responded to the war in different ways: the "Beeri" exhibition, an exhibition of the documentarian photographer Micha Brikman, who documented Kibbutz Beeri several days after the terrible massacre and was made in collaboration with the kibbutz, and the establishment of an interactive family space that focuses on relaxing and uniting family activities. As the museum's curator, my task is to be attentive to the needs and voices that arise from within the community, in normal situations and especially in emergencies, and now as well we acted out of the need to respond to our audience. We will continue to be an attentive and open museum and make our best efforts to produce quality, sensitive, and relevant content."

Tel Aviv University Alumni Organization - A World-Changing Community