Israeli and Turkish Jewelry Designers Join Hands to Create Contemporary Exhibition

Just recently, an exhibition was organized at the Tower of David Museum in the city of Jerusalem. The event brought together a total of 24 contemporary jewelers from the State of Israel, as well as Turkey. The exhibition named, Between a Break and a Breakdown: Jewelry as a Mirror of Our Times, was a part of the 5th ever Jerusalem Biennale. However, Turkish artists and designers were unable to attend as they had not been granted visas to enter the country. 

In the previous year, no less than 16 jewelers from the country of Turkey and eight from the State of Israel held a meeting on Zoom. Soon after, the exhibition was born as a product of the active meetings and discourse that took place between the 24 jewelers. They would break out in groups of three to talk about the impact that the novel coronavirus pandemic had had on their work. This was a part of a team building exercise, where the artists would share sentiments and challenges. Despite the groups being strangers, as well as estranged with close borders and belonging to different cultures, the jewelers were able to forge meaningful bonds. 

A curator, with the name of Ariel Lavian, had spent majority of his first lockdown in a studio that he owns in Mevaseret Zion. According to him, the pandemic hit some artists hard but also gave a sense of freedom to some. He claims that the world being on lockdown gave him the time and energy to explore his artistic side even further. Lavian went on to recall that he had come across some pieces of work curated by a contemporary jeweler living in Istanbul. Consequently, he had realized that he did not know anything about his counter craftsmen residing in Turkey. Thus, the curator reached out to the Turkish artist and the two came up with the idea to create a joint exhibition. 

According to Lavian, the idea was a no-brainer, since the female artist from Turkey was also in the same line of work and lived in a neighboring country. He expressed regret at not being able to come up with this exhibition earlier but, stated that he was grateful to be able to become friends with some wonderful artists from Turkey. In other news, the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, attended a ceremony for the dedication of the Western Wall Heritage Center. The building was constructed by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, which received assistance from various offices of the government. 

It will now be serving as an educational center for groups and individuals arriving from Kotel. In the coming weeks, the dedicated center will be accepting classroom trips and tour groups, since the facilities of the center include classrooms for soldiers and students. Along with Herzog, several notable attendees were also present at the ceremony, such as the director of the foundation, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Eric Gertler, a donor, various representatives from the Zuckerman Institute, as well as heads of different organizations and government figures.