Nira Pereg and Anna Yam, group show, ‘We Hereby Declare’ at Museums of Bat Yam

27.12.207 – 31.03.2018

The exhibition’s title is quote from the most famous event to ever take place in an Israeli museum – the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in 1948. As an awards exhibition, We Hereby Declare celebrates the achievements of contemporary artists working in Israel and whose artistic practices have been awarded prizes by the Ministry of Culture and Sport: Creative Encouragement Award, Young Artist Award, Design Award, Video Art Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award.

The title of the exhibition proposes to look at the artworks featured in it, on their diversity and differences, through the lens of the relationship between art and state in Israel. Thus, while this is not a thematic exhibition, as an exhibition that presents a certain section of visual art created in Israel in recent years, We Hereby Declare not only presents works by artists who have been recognized and awarded prizes, but also addresses the contemporary cultural climate and the conditions in which the exhibition takes place.

The power of art is in its weakness, in the fact that it requires care, mediation, learning, support. Through its weakness, art can set in motion much stronger mechanisms. Despite, and perhaps because of its weakness, art can have the last word, claims philosopher Noam Yuran. From and beyond the context in which it was made, from and beyond the meaning ascribed to it at different moments in history, from and beyond the limitations of its makers, those who display it, consume it, interpret it, censor it, exile it, cherish, or denounce it, it has the last word.

Lifetime Achievement Award: 
Arik Kilemnik