Zionism
Song of the Land
Exhibition Opening Artist’s Talk
Friday, Dec 23, 2022 at 10:30 am
At the Yad Ben Zvi history research institute, 14 Ibn Gevirol St, Jerusalem.
Halutz 2021
חלוץ 2021, שמן ואקרילי, 45*50 ס״מ
Halutz, Pioneer. Oil and acrylic 45 x 50 cm.
The Heroics of the Invisible People
Oil on canvas. All three were painted during spring 2020, during the Corona epidemic and lockdown. This period has been particularly fruitful for me.
Silence in Jezreel – Travel Scroll
דממה ביזרעאל – מגילת מסע
I am showing this work in the 2017 Jerusalem Biennale, in the group show “100 Years of the Balfour Declaration
The show opens tomorrow, Oct 2, at 17:00 in the Museum of the Underground Prisoners, in the Russian Compound, Jerusalem.
Built by the Czars as a hostel for Russian pilgrims, the museum later served the U.K. Mandate as a prison for those resisting their rule and striving for independence.
I am quite honored to have my work be the first exhibited after the entrance. As I hoped, it is hung in a long, vaulted passageway, and will be viewed as a narrative, read west to east, as the viewers walk by.
Silence in Jezreel, 2017
Gouache on panels, 46 x 366 cm. 18′ x 144″
דממה ביזרעאל, 2017
גואש על לוחות, 46 * 366 ס”מ
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Silence in Jezreel, or “Song of the Emek”, was composed in 1934, to romanticize the first, large Jewish settlement project, following the Balfour Declaration. This “Redemption” i.e. purchase of the land, was blessed by the British Mandate, which then still acted in accordance to the promises of the Declaration. It was a watershed With the start of construction, new archaeological discoveries showing showing the ancient Jewish presence in the Valley, fired up the settlers’ imagination.
I chose to tell our narrative of continuity and Zionism, as a travel scroll, passing through the string of valleys, from the Jordan to Haifa Bay. Icons from the 6th cent. synagogue mosaic at Bet Alpha are central to the work.
Chanan Mazal | Israeli Artist 