Ancestors
Curator: Yasmine Bergner
Cover image: Max Harris
The body is the medium through which we communicate with “the other” and the environment. We create personal and social identities through which we establish “human social networks” via the body. Changing and manipulating the body through tattooing is interpreted here as an active pursuit through which people engage in self-identity and in positioning themselves within their social relationships.
The exhibition focuses on the ancestral aspect of the tattoo, as it arises both concretely and metaphorically. The participating artists address, through the act of tattooing, the legacy of ancestors living within us, influencing and shaping our world.
An inscription on the skin allows us to commemorate memory, to reveal and illuminate a hidden layer, to affiliate ourselves with positions and concepts, and to keep them close to our hearts.
A tattoo is an act of change, fixation, and transformation. An expression of the eternal in a transient world.
A tattoo is a “secret revealed,” embodied on the surface from the skin into the light.
The art of tattooing is inherently linked to rites of passage and initiation in shamanic traditions in non-Western tribal cultures.
In Western culture, until the end of the 19th century, the art of tattooing was considered an “inferior” and decadent genre, and tattoos were even used as a tool for diagnosing criminal tendencies.
The art of tattooing receives empowering treatment in contemporary culture. Its status as an independent artistic genre is increasingly becoming established after hundreds of years in which it was labeled as a fringe phenomenon.
Today, a new social trend is flourishing, warmly embracing the genre and recognizing its importance and multicultural uniqueness.
Research and Curating: Yasmine Bergner
Participants: Esther Cohen Skin, Dafna Shapira Hasson, Shunit Gal, Rani Pardes, Max Harris, Malkiella Benchabat, Lilach Madar, Amalia Zand, Galia Pasternak, Arik Weiss, Eyal Fried, Ron Amir, Lars Krutak, Ajarn Matthieu, Nimrod Reuveni, Jude Moskovich, Yasmine Bergner, Haim Maor, Shimon Pinto, Um Kultuv, Yulia Freidin
Binyamin Gallery: 11/7-3/8, 28 Chelnov St., Tel Aviv
Opening: 11/7 Thursday at 20:00
Live performance: “Bone Marrow” (Premiere)
By Dafna Shapira Hasson and Shunit Gal, 20:30
Yasmine Bergner
Amalia and Almagor Zand against the background of a work by Yasmine Bergner and Ajarn Matthieu
Yasmine Bergner (With tattoo artist Amalia Zand, (AKA Big Dipper)
Photography: Jude Moskovich
Right: Eyal Fried, Left: Haim Maor
Eyal Fried
Performance by Dafna Shapira Hasson and Shunit Gal
Dafna Shapira Hasson and Shunit Gal
Amalia Zand (AKA Big Dipper) against the background of her work “Bloodline”
Amalia Zand (AKA Big Dipper)
From right to left: Shimon Pinto, UmKultuv, Ron Amir, Yulia Freidin, Nimrod Reuveni, Rani Pardes
Ajarn Matthieu
From right to left: Galia Pasternak, Yasmine Bergner, Haim Maor
Right: Arik Weiss, Left: Shimon Pinto
Arik Weiss
Haim Maor
Rani Pardes
Yulia Freidin
Lars Krutak
Nimrod Reuveni
Yasmine Bergner
Photography: Jude Moskovich
Shimon Pinto
Lilach Madar and Malkiella Benchabat
To download the full exhibition catalog
Design: Shunit Gal