Exhibitions

Wadi - is a hydrologic geological formation, and a term in Arabic, Hebrew, and English describing different forms of seasonal flow, associated with areas with little precipitation.
In Haifa, however, a wadi is also a mental state; the city's wadis are used for momentary respites from the routine, for various games, and for alternative community gatherings. At the same time, they also embed darkness, all sorts of waste, and complex ecosystems of flora and fauna, which exist in a world parallel to everyday life.
The exhibition addresses different manifestations of this alternate universe.

The exhibition juxtaposes three works by international artists delving into the universal characteristics of the gestures of the protesting body, with four series of photographs from four significant protests in local history.

Artist Jaro Varga came from Prague to Haifa three times during the last year, visits which he spent tracing the footsteps of famous Germans and German culture in the city. A past visitor who attracted him in particular was author Karl May, who came to Haifa in 1899.

Imagine a train ride across a pristine landscape. There is no building, no factory, not even a road in sight. Nothing. Just hills and sand. Through the train window it seems like a place untouched by human hands, but this is obviously an illusion. If we were to stand in the landscape and look towards the train, we would see that the landscape is scarred with iron tracks. Our environment is nearly always shaped by people, who add their own touch to nature, and there is almost no place that is truly natural. But what if humans and nature could live together in better harmony?
You are welcome to design the mountain yourself: plant trees on its slopes and peek into the secrets it reveals through the windows hanging above. Join the ride through the designed landscape to observe it from the inside out and from the outside in.

Oded Hirsch's works are based on detailed scripts for absurd situations. He invents challenges and problems that need to be solved, providing a complete scenario for their solution. The solution is usually just as far-fetched as the challenge, and the works leave the viewer wondering about the very necessity of these actions: Why is it necessary to pull out a tractor buried in the ground, lift it upwards, and introduce it into the museum?
The pulse and breathing rates are among the vital signs by which physicians determine whether a person is healthy, sick, or dead. The vital signs are directly affected by one's emotional state: they change in moments of calm or excitement, fear or infatuation. The exhibition features some of the real products of these vital signs in works of art from the past twenty years. Lines, lights, and sounds are generated as the work of art is adapted to the heartbeats and the cycle of inhalation-exhalation, which determine the structure of the work. This rhythm—whether calm and regular, fast and fidgety, or completely still—may guide one into the depths of consciousness. Alternatively, it can make us conscious of those who are bleeding or those who have been deprived of air to breathe.