The Department of Photography

The Exhibition is open during Musrara Mix (28-30.5 from 19:30-23:00 PM)

The Department of Photography presents two projects in Musrara Mix 24: The first features work by four students, and the second presents the outcomes of a joint project of the department’s students and faculty, which took place over four days in the 2022-23 academic year at King Solomon Hotel in Tiberias.

The works of the four students, selected in a collaborative process, explore different ideas related to the question of time.

Featured students: 

Eliane Tsabari

“Technical civilization is man’s conquest of space. It is a triumph frequently achieved by sacrificing an essential ingredient of existence, namely, time” (Abraham Joshua Heschel).

Drawing on Heschel‘s philosophy, Tsabari’s video work looks at the operation of sound sculptures.

Heschel suggests a shift in our perception of time. Contrary to the Western concept of time as linear and related to spatial movement, Heschel claims that the Sabbath invites us to think about a different temporal awareness. While Western culture measures time through movement in space, the Sabbath offers a temporality rooted in eternity. Who among us hasn’t felt like they are “wasting” time sitting in traffic – after all, “time is money.” However, physical movement is limited on the Sabbath. One can feel a sense of stasis and isolation. How, then, can such a day be considered “holy”? Heschel argues that the sanctity of the Sabbath stems precisely from its departure from the conventional perception of time. It is a sacred pause, a “moment” outside of the sequence of progress, where time itself is sanctified by the decision to withdraw from spatial movement.

Itay Ayalon

Itay Ayalon presents a photo of the empty dining room in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. The photograph is part of an extensive project, in which he documented the work of architect Vittorio Corinaldi, who planned dozens of kibbutzim across Israel. This project was featured in the book “Vittorio Corinaldi: Kibbutz Architect” that was published recently.

The photographs of the dining rooms that Corinaldi designed in the Gaza Envelop kibbutzim were taken about a week before the destruction of October 7. The book was published in the midst of the war in Gaza, when the extent of the damage was still assessed and the fate of the buildings Corinaldi designed in the communities that were attacked was not known yet.

Ayalon’s photographs capture a frozen moment in time, “present continuous”, a moment before the realization of the imminent devastation. The space of the dining room contains the DNA of the destruction to come while it also becomes a record and a monument to the life lived there.

Alter Liberman

Alter Liberman presents two works (video and still photography) from the “Sunset” project. In these works, he unfolds a dialogue (and perhaps an argument?) with the presence of time in his life. The ticking clock in the video work produces an irritating and invasive soundtrack, a Sisyphean and never-ending ticking. Liberman touches on questions concerning our relationship with time: who controls whom and to what extent does the clock become (with our consent or unwittingly) the authority that controls us, that produces the rhythm of our lives. But although the ticking of the clock doesn’t stop, the setting sun gradually erases its visual, concrete presence. 

In fact, the ticking of the clock and the sunset are both expressions of the passing time, while they also mark the decline of the body that succumbs to the rhythm of time. 

Ilana Hoffmann

Ilana Hoffmann comes from the ultra-Orthodox world in Jerusalem. The human and cultural circles in which she lives her life imbue and inform her work, which often explores the domestic space and features members of her family. Here, she captures her twin daughters. The whispering and speaking chorus in the video “Grow” is also comprised of her children and grandchildren.

Ilana: “Every blade of grass and tree has an angel telling it to grow. My youngest child and grandchildren are telling me to ‘grow’ as a reminder that I must carry on.”