(Dis)Place: New Directions in the History of Art in Israel

The conference aims to revisit basic questions about locality, identity and belonging in relation to the hierarchies of different narratives and the canon of art in Israel, as well as to introduce new questions about space, time and alterity. The conference will map critical strategies and discuss new frameworks for thinking of histories of art and political conditions in Israel while dismantling the borders of that field – imaginary and concrete, thus serving as a venue to contemplate identities of artists working in and outside the state of Israel in an age of globalization and trans-nationalism. Also, an intersectional approach that considers multiple and overlapping identity categories, such as religion and nationality, will serve to discuss different case studies.
Among the questions critical to the conference are: In what ways have migration and the plurality of cultures in Israel impacted artistic production? How can the developments of art's relation to nationalism in Israel be reconsidered in light of global art history? Has the canon of art in Israel undergone significant revision, and what are its dynamics of inclusion and exclusion? Thus, this conference aims to carve out new understandings of prevailing narratives while destabilizing established notions of self, state, and belonging.

No registration deeded, no fee required to attend.

Link to the conference site: http://israeliarttau.wixsite.com/displace/schedule

PROGRAMME

09:00- 09:30
Gathering

09:30
Greetings
Chair: Assaf Pinkus, Chair of TIAF and organizer of the conference, Tel Aviv University
Zvika Serper, Dean of the Yolanda and David Katz Faculty of the Arts, Tel Aviv University
Sefy Hendler, Head of the Art History Department, Tel Aviv University
Mrs. Dorothy Cohen Shoichet, Toronto

10:00-11:00
Keynote Lecture
Chair: Tal Dekel, Tel Aviv University

Israeli art – Inside Out Historiographies
Gannit Ankori, Brandeis University

11:00-11:30
Coffee Break

11:30-13:00
Session 1: Activism and Transgression
Chair: Ayelet Zohar, Tel Aviv University

The Exterritory Project
Maayan Amir, University of Haifa

Betrayal and the Curatorial
Joshua Simon, MOBY - Bat Yam Museum

Trading Zone: Authority and Art in Public Spaces
Neta Meisels, 'HaMiffal' project and the 'Empty House' Collective, Jerusalem

13:00-14:30
Lunch Break

14:30-16:00
Session 2: Identity, Place, and Belonging
Chair: Rona Sela, Tel Aviv University

Palestinian Art: Creativity in the Shadow of the Conflict
Housni Alkhateeb Shehada, Levinsky College of Education

Collective Remembrance and Fragile Landscapes
Hannah Braun, Boston University

Racialization and Gendering in Israeli Art
Sivan Rajuan Shtang, Shenkar College of Engineering and Design and Sapir College

16:00-16:15
Coffee Break

16:15-17:45
Session 3: Gendered Aspects of Art
Chair: Ruth Iskin, Ben Gurion University

Alternative Visions of Nation-Building, German-Jewish Women Photographers after 1933
Anna Sophia Messner, Max-Planck Institute, Florence

Cleansing and Annihilation in Palestinian Women's Art: A Political Context
Aida Nasrrallah, Beit Berl College

Jewish Orthodox Feminist Art: Institutional Criticism of the Rabbinical Establishment
David Sperber, Bar Ilan University

17:45-18:15
Coffee Break

18:15- 19:45
Session 4: Mizrahi Israeli Art
Chair: Orly Shevi, Tel Aviv University

Forbidden Inheritance – Aesthetics, Rituals, and Identity Codes in Video Art
Dafna Shalom, Bezalel Academy of Arts, activist and artist

"My Heart at East" –On Allocation of National Cultural Budgets
Shula Keshet, feminist artist and curator, CEO of "Achoti – for Women in Israel"

The Identity Scratch – The Chronicle of Mizrahi Art
Haviva Pedaya, Ben Gurion University

Tuesday, May 18, 2017

09:30
Gathering

10:00-11:30
Session 1: Migration and Transnationalism
Chair: Naama Klorman-Eraqi, Tel Aviv University

The Iconic Face of Transnational Art in Israel: Our Lady of South Tel Aviv
Anastasia Keshman Wasserman, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

Return to Zion: Art and Zionism in the Czech Lands
Eva Janacova, Institute of Art History, Prague

The Return of Handicraft as Political Activism: Displacement, Exclusion, Solidarity
Yael Guilat, Oranim Academic College & Shoshi Waksman, Independent scholar

11:45-12:15
Special performance
Anisa Ashkar

12:30-13:45
Lunch Break

13:45-15:45
Session 2: On Curators and Museums
Chair: Mira Banay, Tel Aviv University and the Open University

The Performative Turn in Israeli Curatorial Practice
Dror Harari, Tel Aviv University

Reshaping the Past: On Reconstructed Exhibitions
Osnat Zukerman Rechter, Independent scholar

Modern Calls, Mental Walls
Jelle Bouwhuis, the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

From Nationalism to Universalism: The Bezalel Museum between Wars
Shir Kochavi, University of Leeds

15:45-16:15
Coffee Break

16:15 17:45
Session 3: Reconsidering the Canon
Chair: Nava Sevilla Sadeh, Tel Aviv University

Absentees; Historiography as Critique
Dalia Manor, Ben Gurion University

Where was the Voice in the 1970? On Authenticity in the art of Michal Na'aman
Ela Krieger, Jacobs University

Post-Structuralist Critique Reconsidered
Merav Yerushalmy, Ben Gurion University

17:45-18:15
Special Performance
Shahar Marcus

18:15-18:30
Coffee Break

18:30-19:30
Keynote Lecture
Chair: Adi Louria Hayon, Tel Aviv University

Gender, Migration and Transnationalism: The Case of Chana Orloff
Paula Birnbaum, University of San Francisco