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Selected Solo and group exhibitions
Passover 1840
2024, Graduate show MA Contemporary Art Practice, Royal College of Art, London
The multidisciplinary installation reflected on Jewish history and collective trauma.
The installation consisted of three projects linked with research done by the artist on the history of Blood Libels. Blood libels are antisemitic false accusations, which tie Jewish rituals with demonic acts especially blood rituals with the Jewish holiday of Passover. The artist was specifically interested in a historical event called the Damascus Affair, where the elders of the Jewish community in Damascus faced false accusations and persecution following Passover in 1840. A series of wood engravings shed light on different elements of the historical accounts, Matzah crackers engraved with a laser, and a silver sculpture inspired by the Moses Montefiore testimonial Centrepiece.
The Conservator
2023, part of the group exhibition at Naum Gutman Museum (curated by Monica Lavi), Tel Aviv
Does the process of preserving the past involve creative destruction? What are the consequences of creating a new future? This question is at the centre of the video installation at Naum Guttman Museum. This short mockumentary describes a conservator (played by Niv Fridman) who is invited to the Naum Guttman Museum to restore an old work (by the artist Naum Guttman) that is stored in storage.
Seconda Persona, dual exhibition
2023, Alma Gershun and Niv Fridman, Inga Gallery, Tel Aviv
"Walking on the beach of Caesarea, which was once an ancient Roman port, and collecting pieces of 2000 years old broken pieces of clay piled onto shore unattended, was a hobby of mine as a child. In this body of work, a collaboration with the Painter Alma Gershuni, we created fragments of broken body parts, made from casts of my own body. I see those fragments as a way to recreate the feeling of collecting the clay pieces as a child, where the distinction between past and present became blurry."
Chocolate Heidi, Solo Exhibition
September 2021, Meierhüsli by Heidiseum, Zurich, Curated by Peter Büttner and Peter Polzin
May 2022, Jewish Museum Munich, Curated by Nurit Blatman
The exhibition features a photo series which is inspired by old postcards from the Holy Land. In the photos Heidi is situated in different touristic locations around israel. For me, Heidi is a symbol of childhood innocence and home-longing. In the photos Heidi looks as if she was taken from a different scenery, and put in an unfamiliar middle-eastern environment. The exhibition also includes a chocolate sculpture which was created at Confiserie Sprüngli chocolate factory, and was based on a 3D scan of the dancer Tamar Rozensweig.
Speciel thanks to Confiserie Sprüngli for supporting the project
Donut at the Cemetry, Solo Exhibition
July-Agust 2021, Koresh 14 Gallery, Jerusalem. Curated by Dvir Shaked.
Solo exhibition which was inspired by my personal expereince in Buschwick, New York in 2017-2018. The exhibition included a small scale model which was handmade mainly from cardboard, and depicted the nearby area of my house at the time, the Evergreen Cemetry and a Dunkin' Donuts branch. The exhibition also included a video piece which reflects my personal encounter as a foreigner with the American culture. In Donut at the Cemetry video work, I eat a donut for seven and a half minutes and it was inspired by the iconic work by Andy Warhol eating a burger. The work deals with issues of homosexual hidden motives in the American pop culture, and is also a personal reflection of the relationship between life and death and between art, food and consumerism.
This exhibition took place thanks to the generous support of ARTIQ - Israel LGBTQ Art Fund.
Niv Fridman and Hanna Illiavsky, Dual Exhibition
December 2020, Beit-Dror Gallery, Kibutz Einat.
Our friendship and conversations led to this co-operation, giving rise to the idea of creating a complex visual experience for the visitors. We met when we were studying at Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem. Each one of us uses different materials in our works, Hanna paints with oil on canvas, and Niv creates videos, photographs and installations. We both portray unconventional points of view in our work, points of view which shed new light on what is hidden or out of sight. In her paintings Hanna depicts scenes of tracking/spying, of an eye which peeks to the most private of places, whereas Niv invites his viewers to glimpse within his works into a fictional reality, where past and present co-exist.
Stone Soup, Chef Dinner and art event
January 2020, Manderman Gallery Tel-aviv and Hamiffal Jerusalem.
A collaboration with Berlin based chef Omer Mantin, owner of The Alchemist Kitchen. The event included dinner and art event inspired by the folk story Stone Soup that proves the magic of imagination to shape reality. The event included a performative reading of the story, a video piece specially made for the event and five courses inspired by stones and natural elements.
The story Stone Soup appears in many cultures and in many different versions. In China for example there is a legend about a Buttons Soup, and in other traditions there are legends about an Axe Soup. I was attracted to the story because it doesn't have a clear moral message - it is a story about fraud, greed and deceit. But it is also a story about the power of imagination to shape reality and the ability to make a delicious soup out of anything, even in a reality of poverty and distress.
The Ibex Man - Israel Aharoni
July 2019, Garduate Show at Bezlalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem.
Following The first Hebrew Zoologist Israel Aharoni (1886-1946). My aim In this project was to reexamine Israel Aharoni's zionistic point of view in a contemporary context and it was inspired by a research I made on his life and work.
Israel Aharoni's Memoir describes in a beautiful, picturesque way the expedition he led between 1905-1944 in order to hunt and collect rare species for the foundation of the first Zionist Natural History Collection. When I first found the book on a dusty shelf at the back of the library I was surprised by Its clear message; there are two kinds of people, those who are lucky enough to have the ability to research the world and the less fortunate ones who are doomed to be the subjects of the research. From his patronizing point of view as a western researcher there was no difference between an object, an animal and a human being - all of them are subjected to the same type of pedantic examination.
Flour, Water, Eggs
April 2014, Graduate Show at Thelma-Yellin High School of Arts.
An exhibition which was born from a dream- to make the entire ocean into a giant bread. The outcome is a surreal environment which is defined by strong colors such as yellow, blue and white. The exhibition was also inspired by a trip I made into a flour factory and a research on the process of bread making.
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