Art and the City: Talking Art

If art, for you, is a painting to fill a gap on your wall or match your throw cushions, you’re seeing no more than a small part of the picture (pun fully intended).

“Art is always about more than decoration or beauty,” says Shani Werner, who founded Talking Art in Tel Aviv in 2013. “It’s about the time, place and way of life where it was created. It tells stories, challenges and sheds light on social dynamics, politics, conflict, feminism, money, technology and more. When you learn about a country’s contemporary art, you’re seeing deep into the reality of that country and its people.”

Werner set up Talking Art to bring Israel’s vibrant art world to all, from veterans to novices. Graduating Haifa University with an MA in Fine Arts, she had guided at a leading Tel Aviv art museum. Rather than recite from the catalogue, however, she engaged with those she guided, debating and exchanging ideas. Increasingly, people asked her to show them Tel Aviv art beyond the museum walls.

Nine years on, Talking Art tours are a Tel Aviv fixture, and are expanding to Jerusalem, London, Paris, Porto and Amsterdam. Groups of up to 20, led by experts from Israel’s art world (artists, art historians, sculptors, curators, architects, art critics) take behind-the-scenes look at aspects of the city’s contemporary art and culture.

“We have tours that have run regularly since we launched, such as Street Art and Graffiti, The Urban Experience and Tel Aviv Architecture,” says Werner. “We also specialize in tailoring custom guided tours according to individual interests – such as Queer art, political art or feminist art.”

While the content of Talking Art tours continually changes, they all seek to understand what drives contemporary Israeli art. They showcase local creativity, hidden corners of the city, experimental galleries and artists’ studios, and often include encounters with gallery owners, photographers, artists and curators.

Street Art and Graffiti, a firm favorite, explores the role of both in urban culture. It goes to South Tel Aviv’s Kiryat Hamelacha, an abandoned industrial area taken over by artists, whose studios, galleries and street art have made it a center of contemporary art. “The tour considers how street art evolved from subversive to mainstream, the color it adds to the city, the social issues it addresses (gentrification, sexual discrimination, economy and so on), and what distinguishes it from graffiti,” explains Werner.

Prefer gallery art? Talking Art’s Gallery Hop Tel Aviv takes you to the best work in town by Israeli and international artists working in different media, and to meet the artists, curators and gallery owners leading the new trends in Israel’s contemporary art. Or join the Tel Aviv Museum of Art — Israeli Art Tour to see one of the country’s largest art collections with some 20 parallel exhibitions of both modern and contemporary art. Talking Art focuses here on history and heritage in Israeli art.

Tel Aviv’s Architecture, from Sands to Sky takes an in-depth look at the city’s urban landscape. A quintessential example of the international style, it embraces boulevards, alleys, hidden gardens, expansive squares and small piazzas. Its mix of past and present, white facades, skyscrapers, conservation, preservation and social protest combine to tell its story. The city’s early history is cradled in neighboring Jaffa, which is currently gentrifying after decades of neglect. Talking Art Jaffa’s Renaissance tours uncovers the cultural and creative changes underway in its wealth of studios, galleries and street art.

The powerful impact of digital technologies on contemporary visual art and creative techniques is examined in Talking Art’s Art and Technology tour. This looks at art produced by machine, paintings generated by Google searches, artworks that use WAZE, WhatsApp, VR and AR creation among other apps. Smartphones take center stage in a Talking Art Urban Experience Art and Smartphone Photography Workshop, which teaches participants about angles, composition, light and shadow, and their special smartphone camera features.

Following a COVID-induced hiatus, Talking Art is once again flourishing — but the enforced idleness of lockdown prompted Werner to look further afield. It was then that she created Talking Art Locals, which takes the Talking Art model beyond Israel.

“Even before the pandemic, I would lead five-day art tours to Paris, London and Athens several times a year,” she says. “So I knew Israeli artists, curators and art intellectuals in Europe who embrace our approach to sharing the art scene. With them, we’re now establishing Talking Art branches that explore the contemporary art worlds of European cities.”

While Talking Art is about art tours, says Werner, they are never solely about art. “Art illuminates issues that matter,” she says. “Art is always more than pictures on walls.”

Partnered with Talking Art