spaces. transformations

The exhibition explores public life in Israel as seen through archaeological sites and recreational spaces, examining ways in which visitors make use of these. Siman-Tov’s photographs of excavation sites, public parks, pools, sports arenas, and historical places draw our attention to those features of the public sites that remain unnamed and that exceed their official purpose. They bring into view ‘Israeli spaces’ that belong neither solely to high, symbolic culture nor entirely to the private or individual domain, but rather bear the marks of both. Siman-Tov discloses the temporal, historical layering of these locations while simultaneously parsing for the viewer the complex religious, social, and political make-up of contemporary Israeli public space.

Born in 1971, Orit Siman-Tov graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem, in 1997 and was awarded the Ministry of Education’s Young Artists Prize 1998. Since then, she has worked and exhibited in Israel, Europe, Asia, and the U.S. Her work focuses on spatial and social archaeologies of the everyday. It includes studies of cities such as Berlin and Chicago, but most comprehensively chronicles public life in Israel. Here, Siman-Tov’s photography articulates symbolic and historical aspects of Israeli culture with contemporary social, cultural, and economic tensions.