Camels in the Air

Through a series of interactive works that combine the imaginary and the historical, the Hansen House’s attic becomes a hybrid reality in which East and West incessantly produce one another. The symbol of the “Flying Camel”, a self-imagined combination designed by Aryeh Elhanani for the Levant Fair founded in Tel Aviv in 1932, serves as the starting point for an exhibition that traces the design of the local visual environment while it was still in flux. In place of the conventional conception that views the East as the product of Western perceptions, the exhibition seeks to return to the historical, initial encounter, between modernity and the Levant:, A moment in which cultural perceptions of time compete, visual worlds collide, and different worldviews design both reality and the imagination. The participating artists flood such tensions with machines, objects, and imagery, all an expression of the rich, complex world that characterized the local scope in the early 20th century, a world in which camels could fly.

Curators: Hadas Zemer Ben-Ari and Gilad Reich.
Particpating artists: Leoni Schein, Sarit Youdelevich, Doron Altaratz, Netta Laufer, Itamar Heifetz, Aya Bentur and Gali Blay Historical consultants: Dr. On Barak