"All Through the Days: Playfulness in Contemporary Israeli Art "

"All Through the Days: Playfulness in Contemporary Israeli Art "

The human imagination is a remarkable and inexhaustible resource which allows us to contemplate ideas, images, and scenarios that surpass the limits of reality and our immediate surroundings. When we come into the world, we are equipped with the ability to create alternative realities in the realms of imagination and play, but as we grow older, we turn to these reservoirs of fantasy and creativity less and less. In the current situation, the question arises: how can we create a new reality for our divided, conflicted society without the ability to visualize such a reality in our mind's eye?

Artists tend to be more in tune with their playful side, often embracing and fostering the ability to invent other worlds and maintain an artistic space of their creation. The exhibition “All Through the Days”* addresses the primary creative experience embodied in play and playfulness. It seeks to touch the cognitive capacity to create a different reality, to reach that part in our consciousness to which the soul turns for relaxation, amusement, and creation. One may draw similarities between play and the work of art: both facilitate the creation of a world with rules all its own and introduce alternative perceptions of reality, if only momentary. The exhibition features works by contemporary Israeli artists who test the limits of art through playful means and raise diverse questions about the local reality. They delve into nature and culture, identity and multiculturalism, while also criticizing society.

The exhibition is divided into three chapters, spread over the Museum's three floors, referring to the points of convergence between play and artmaking pertaining to the various strata and aspects of this theme. The first chapter, Primal Games, rests on the naïve, age-old perception of play and playfulness as cultural foundations which evolved from natural elements. The second chapter addresses Actual Games, striving to echo our collective memory as embodied in familiar games from the local sphere: board games, outdoor games, imagination games, and interactive computer games. These are translated by the artists, who use them to express an idea, take a stand, and probe the Israeli reality.

Installation view, ground floor ("Primal Games"). Photograph by Yuval Hai

The third chapter, Play & Dream, is dedicated to the relationship between playfulness and dreams (whether daydreams or night dreams) and the blurring of boundaries between them. It explores dream as a fantastic space and play as a domain where one is allowed and even encouraged to dream, fantasize, and create. At the same time, it also points to the dark side of play, where innocence cracks.

The works on this floor are displayed within a salon-like (living room) space, where special events will be held during the exhibition period in continuation of the “Salon at the Museum” project. This idea is part of an ongoing curatorial process at the Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art, which seeks to make the museum space domestic and inviting, to expand the boundaries of the museum and raise questions regarding its vision and goals.

Installation view, 2nd floor ("Play & Dream"). Photograph by Yuval Hai

The exhibition highlights artmaking as a practice which enables the visualization of a different reality, making it possible to create alternatives to a harsh and merciless state of affairs and build bridges to countless parallel spaces, while offering hope, comfort, and healing.

* The title of the exhibition was drawn from Leah Goldberg's poem “Magic Hat” (Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing)