HOST COUNTRY - FRANCE

Paris has always been a focal point for artists from around the world, blending into its vibrant artistic life without losing their own identity. Six artists from different countries, living and working in Paris, will for the first time in Israel, show their works at The New Gallery in Jerusalem.

These artists sought new horizons, striving to enrich themselves through the strangeness of a new environment, but unable or unwilling to cut loose from their roots. Each of them has found a way to nurture memories of childhood, family, homeland or mother tongue. Ruth Barabash is haunted by images of war although she has lived away from Israel for 20 years. Ladan Shahrokh Naderi is engulfed by her childhood in Iran. Florence Lazar ties herself to her past through ongoing political activism in her native country. Gaston Damag uses ethnographic symbols of his culture of origin to create contemporary works. Myung-Ok Han conserves in her works the introverted, meditative nature of Asian culture. Elina Brotherus , the most European of the group and the most recent immigrant, is still deeply in the process of immigration.

The exhibition is the result of an invitation extended by the French Government to curator Marie Shek to travel to France for a study tour. The relation between immigration and art is a research subject of hers, which explains her particular attraction to artists from various origins.

The topic of "Paris as a crossroads of multi-cultural identities" has a particular meaning here in Israel, an immigrant nation itself. Four of the artists will be present at the opening, including the artist from Iran.

Hedva Shemesh, The New Gallery Curator

CURATOR: MARIE SHEK

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS Ruth Barabash - Israel Myung-Ok Han -South Korea Florence Lazar - Serbia and France Elina Brotherus - Finland Gaston Damag - The Philippines Ladan Shahrokh Naderi - Iran

Supported by the Embassy of France and the French Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv

Pressetext

HOST COUNTRY - FRANCE / France Terre d'accueil
Kurator: Marie Shek

mit Ruth Barabash, Myung-Ok Han, Florence Lazar, Elina Brotherus, Gaston Damag, Ladan Shahrokh Naderi