Wind Words

Wind Words

Featuring: Daniel Enkaoua, Sapir Gal, Mark Glezin, Amir Tomashov, Reuven Zahavi

Curator: Hadas Glazer

“May words which are like the wind be stopped? or what is troubling you to make answer to them?”

(Job 16: 3)

The notion of “words that are like the wind” is taken from the Book of Job. In the biblical story, Job complains to his friends that their words of comfort and support following the disasters that befell him are meaningless and hollow – empty and pointless words that fail to offer any real relief and solace. The verse echoes our current crisis, and the question of the role of art in this time. Are words of “wind,” of spirit and beauty really insignificant and trivial at a time like this? Against this, we can point out that the human soul actually longs for moments of exultation and delight precisely in such dark moments. This exhibition is situated in the space that stretches between these two notions.

The exhibition features work by five painters, mostly still lifes, alongside a few paintings of vegetation and portraits. The works explore the beauty embodied in life as well as in death, touching on vacuity of life alongside existential questions. The enticing beauty of the paintings invites reflections on this tension between fascination and repulsion, and between admiration and indifference.

The visit to the exhibition summons reflections on the winding path, which splits and unites as it flows between the beautiful and the morbid, and between eternity and life’s transience. The “words of the wind” in the exhibition illuminate the interplay between still life, Memento Mori, and childhood. Through the diverse works, we are reminded of the fragility of life, the innocence of youth, and the inevitable death. Alongside these, the exhibition questions: does the seductive beauty of the works also hold the power to heal and revive? At a time like this, is beauty allowed or is it an excessive luxury?