Tumarkin is not the only one missing from the list

The German government has so far invested $3 million in the "The New Hebrew. One Hundred Years of Art in Israel," an exhibition to open in Berlin in mid-May. The exhibition will be held at the Martin Gropius-Bau museum, one of Germany's important exhibition sites, as one of the events marking 40 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and Germany. Curator Dorit Levita, who lives in Berlin, and Yigal Zalmona, the Israeli Museum's chief curator, are working together on the exhibition.

The exhibition will feature the works of 103 Israeli artists from the early days of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design to the present. Perhaps this is why, even before the opening of the exhibition, criticism of the choice of artists is already being voiced, mainly regarding those who were not included.

"The list is outrageous," says Meir Loushy of the Loushy Gallery in Tel Aviv. "If this were a conceptual exhibition, I would have no problem with it, but this is a subject exhibition that presumes to present 100 years of Israeli art. It is unacceptable that artists such as Erez Israeli and Michal Shamir are represented, while important artists such as Yigal Tumarkin, or Philip Rantzer and Uri Katzenstein, two artists who represented Israel at the Venice Biennale, are not. It is unacceptable that someone who has been living in exile in Germany for 30 years and is unaware of what is happening here, should be curating an exhibition of this scope."

Tumarkin is not the only one missing from the list. Other big names on the local art scene, who won't be included, are Yosef Zaritsky, Avigdor Stematsky, Yehezkel Streichman, Menahem Shemi, Marcel Yanko and Ari Aroch.

"It is impossible to include them all," says Levita, "and there is something called the curator's choice. Apart from that, I am quite fond of shattering local legends. It is not important for me to tell the story of Israeli iconization, and I also don't exactly agree with it. That is my prerogative as a curator."

Although Levita lives in Germany, contrary to Loushy's allegation, she is very involved in the art scene here, thanks to her frequent visits to Israel. She has been living in Germany for 25 years, ever since she went there as a Haaretz correspondent to interview Jurgen Harten, then the director of the Kunsthalle in Dusseldorf. She fell in love with him and followed him, even though this was out of character with her upbringing.

Everyone benefits somehow

"I grew up in a family that totally boycotted the Germans," says Levita. "We didn't travel to Germany and did not buy German products. Even though my family was living in Israel during the Holocaust, I noticed that Israelis who lived here at that time are the ones who do not forgive to this day, unlike the Jewish communities in Germany, for example, many of whose members are Holocaust survivors."

Levita tried to forge ties with those Jewish communities when she went to Germany, but discovered that she, the Israeli, had nothing in common with them.

"I went to visit the Jewish communities and felt a terrible foreignness," she recalls. "I had no common language with them, which is also the foundation for a common culture. I realized that I had to form relationships with Germans."

That, however, was no easy task.

"Over the years," says Levita, "I noticed that my German friends understood the meaning of my being Jewish, but not the meaning of my being Israeli. From their perspective, an Israeli is a Jew who lives in Israel and is perceived only as an evil occupier. They don't understand that a special culture has developed in Israel, which includes the identifying marks of Jewish culture but is also very different from it."

That is how the idea was born to curate an exhibition that would present the Hebrew culture that developed in Israel from the early 20th century.

"I approached the Martin Gropius museum with the idea to curate an exhibition on this subject," says Levita. "They were very enthusiastic, but said that since this is a sensitive topic, they also wanted to involve a member of the Israeli art establishment. That is how the Israeli Museum entered the picture."

Why sensitive?

"Because everything connected with Israel is a sensitive issue," replies Levita. "They didn't want to take any risks. I figure they wanted local Israeli backing in case any sort of scandal erupted, that the Israeli government might not like something [about the exhibition]."

Did this caution not hamper your freedom of choice as a curator?

"On the contrary. It's true that a large share of Israeli contemporary art is critical, and I chose a lot of contemporary art for the exhibition, but as long as things are being done under the auspices of the Israel Museum, there is no problem. Everyone benefits: I have full freedom as a curator, the Germans are not worried about criticism, and the Israeli Museum got an opportunity to participate in a large important exhibition."

Chest tattoo in German

The exhibition that Levita and Zalmona are curating may appear quite predictable and didactic to Israelis, but Levita is not interested in the Israeli viewer, but rather the German one, who does not know anything about Israeli culture.

"I have to explain things that in Israel are understood," she says. "I have to present the beginnings of Israeli art and show how it is different from Diaspora Jewish culture. I have chosen to tell a story and not instigate a revolution. I do that with other exhibitions of contemporary art. In this exhibition, I am putting myself aside."

Levita clearly was meticulous about not being critical of Israeli society, particularly not in a country like Germany.

"Many people would be pleased to see a critical exhibition, but this story has more than a bad side. All its complexity must by presented."

Have you not undertaken too great a task?

"Of course, it is impossible to portray an entire culture in one exhibition, but one has to try. Even if it is a failure, it will be a magnificent failure."

The exhibition is structured chronologically and thematically. It covers many topics, such as wars, religion, Zionism and internal social problems, and it presents, side-by-side, works of art, documents, posters and archaeological objects. Visitors will go from room to room, from the early days of Bezalel, through the beginnings of Zionism, the building of "the new Jew" and Bezalel propaganda art.

The room presenting the Israeli style of painting will show works by Reuven Rubin, Ziona Tager, Nahum Gutman, Arieh Elhanani and Israel Paldi, among others. The room on the Hebrew language will feature posters and graphic proclamations alongside paintings by Michal Neeman, Tal Matzliah, a video installation by Efrat Shvili and paintings by Rafi Lavi.

Two other rooms will focus on utopia: the glorification of building Israel and the architecture that typified kibbutzim, housing projects and public buildings. Two rooms will be dedicated to the Holocaust from the perspective of those living in Israel. Among other items, there will be video works by Yael Bartana, which deal with Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, a bouquet of concrete flowers by Erez Israeli and Paul Goldman's photo, taken at Kibbutz Nahalal, in which a woman whose face is not in the picture has "field prostitute" tattooed on her chest in German. The woman was tattooed during World War II. This room also contains photos from the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, photos of the public in the courtroom and those who gathered outside it.

The room labeled "homeland" features landscapes by Eli Shamir, Uri Reisman and others. Levita chose to show the landscapes to differentiate between "the Jewish connection, which is in the blood, and the Israeli connection, which is based on location."

Two other rooms will deal with the wars through works by Erez Israeli, Moshe Gershoni, Sigalit Landau, Gilad Ophir and Nir Hod, as well as a series of photos by Drora Domini, depicting Israeli memorial monuments. The display also includes documents such as Moshe Dayan's will. "Anyone reading it will think this man never went to war," says Levita.

Another unusual object on display will be the Temple Scroll, written, according to archaeologists, by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that lived in the Judean desert over 2,000 years ago. The scroll was found in the Qumran Caves and describes the Temple in Jerusalem.

"The scroll represents a type of utopia," says Levita, "which is why I included it in the exhibition. Ever since the scroll was brought to Israel, after the 1967 Six-Day War, the scroll has provided secular Jews with a kind of legitimization of Israel's hold on that place."

Gush Emunim vs. Peace Now

The conflicts with the Palestinians and within Israeli society are presented in two rooms. Among others, there are works that deal with the ethnic tension, such as "Nine out of four hundred" by Meir Gal; social issues expressed in photos by Relly Avrahami; and pictures of demonstrations from Gush Emunim to Peace Now. "Individual," a work by Avi Mugrabi, shows the injustices that occur at Israel Defense Forces check points in the territories and the conflict is seen in photos by Micha Kirshner, Miki Kratsman, Tsibi Geva and Pavel Wohlberg.

Rooms devoted to alternatives display documents related to aspects of the peace process that were never realized, such as the Oslo Accord, excerpts from Theodor Herzl's diary and visual alternatives, such as landscapes with a Japanese aesthetic by Doron Rabina and Yehudit Sasportas, or painted in the Bruegel style by Nurit David.

Levita presents religion through works such as a Passover Haggadah and a pieta by Gil Shahar, Moshe Gershoni's paintings of prayers, an installation of a wound in a wall by Michal Shamir, "Via Dolorosa" by Motti Mizrachi and works by Uri Nir, Pesi Girsch and Dina Shenhav.

This exhibition, which covers 100 years of Hebrew art, includes no contemporary Palestinian art, which developed alongside and within the dialogue with Israeli art.

"Not one Palestinian artist wanted to participate in the exhibition, and rightfully so," says Levita. "Perhaps that will be the next exhibition that I curate."

	A piece by Heidi Stern. The exhibition will feature the works of 103 Israeli artists from the early days of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design to the present.