Through the Window

The Rappaport prize winner recipient show
Curator: Anat Danon Sivan

Photos: Tal Nisim, Elad Sarig

The sculptures in the exhibition confront us with the lobby to an apartment building, which functions as a transitional area from the public exterior to the tenants’ private and intimate interiors. The typical lobbies are characterized by a standard design: stone-like tiles, glass screens and mirrors, ornamental plants, bulletin boards, and aluminum mailboxes—a material trace of interpersonal communication. Whereas in the past, mailboxes encapsulated a space of desire, into which one reaches, expecting to find a personal letter or a postcard, today they function in the service of the impersonal and bureaucratic, as a means of transporting utility bills and flyers. On the other side of the façade-sculptures one reveals halved serving trays or glass shelves with wine glasses, which enable the view from the outside to invade the interior of the house. The regulation of the viewer’s gaze between the overt and covert and between the open and the closed, is reflected in the use of smart glass—a state-of-the-art technology that combines transparency and opacity, allowing the image behind the glass to alternately appear and disappear. A mattress embedded in a granolithic floor highlights the subversion of order and the spatial disruptions introduced by Navok, juxtaposing the intimate bedroom with the open public plaza visible to all.