ANYBODY HOME?
The 5th Mediterranean Biennale
Haifa, Israel
January 18 - March 7, 2024
Curators: Avital Bar-Shay & Belu-Simion Fainaru
Participating artists:
AES+F, Elmgreen & Dragset, Carlos Amorales, Guy Ben-Ner, Moshe Gershuni, Ori Gersht, Jenny Holzer, Meirav Heiman, Pavel Wolberg, Yigal Tumarkin, Ziva Yalin, Ciprian Murresan, Alex Mirutziu, Shahar Marcus & Nezaket Ekici, Belu-Simon Fainaru, Adel Abdessemed, Jannis Kounellis, Meinrad Schade, Angelika Sher, Hannah Abu-Hussein, Lela Ahmadzai, Avital Bar-shay, Burak Delier, Almagul Menlibayeva, Or Fainaru, Hacer Kiroglu, Boaz Kaizman, Marina Zaikina
It is tempting to view time in seconds, minutes, and hours, before and after October 7, 2023. Moments connect to places, pinning memories, like flags on a map; moments which no one dares to forget in the face of violence, suffering, and profound pain. How can one rise from the abyss of darkness? What kind of people will we be? What kind of society will we create? What does the future hold? On what values will we raise our children? Where does one find the strength to re-build a home in such a world?
The question "Anybody home?" challenges the assumption that "home" is a stable site of belonging representing shelter, refuge and safety, peace and identity; a place that protects its occupants. The boundaries delineating this everyday space have been abandoned, and are now more blurred than ever. Peace has been violated by elements of chaos and insecurity, by an experience of disrupted normality. "Home" has become more traumatic than comforting.
The exhibition "Anybody Home?", presented as part of the 5th Mediterranean Biennale, responds to the current reality, exploring issues pertaining to home, loss, pain, longing, and hope, in search of meaning in a violent, cruel world. The works invite the viewer to contemplate experiences of emotional detachment, helplessness and distress, striving to remind us of the importance of help, empathy, and understanding in the chaos of life. Works of art are a manifestation of the human spirit and of art's power to inspire hope even in difficult moments, in the shadow of war; of its ability to strengthen and heal, to offer support and a remedy for the soul and give hope, to introduce humanism, solidarity, and social resilience in open, secure spaces where people can gather, share their grief, engage in sincere conversation, and strive for a better, peaceful future.
The Mediterranean Biennale was inaugurated in 2010 as a model for multicultural cooperation and dialogue among diverse outlooks and opinions held by different communities and groups in the Middle East and the Mediterranean countries. The biennale's underlying vision is to promote peace through artistic activity intended to build mutual trust in the region, by promoting cooperation based on equality and reciprocity; to bring a new approach to the region via artistic activity in the hope of creating a basis for human dialogue and coexistence between communities that are still in conflict and seek to promote education for peace, tolerance, and non-violence.
The biennale aims to bridge gaps in the perception of the other and encourage cultural diversity, so as to create an environment where individuals and groups share common values and exist in peace. By turning the spotlight on artistic work and universal human feelings based on a vision for a shared future and human dignity, we hope to avoid politics and regional disputes, in the pursuit of creating a better future for coexistence. The Mediterranean Biennale offers an alternative platform, highlighting the local processes being created in the region, and enhancing their cultural impact by means of art directed towards the community, that bridges between cultures; art that leaves the museum, integrates with the city, and transforms the city into a museum.
The biennale will serve as a place in which to raise various issues, such as: How to return art to society? What is the relevance of art in today's world? How is the role of art as a bridge between cultures manifested?
The exhibition "Anybody Home?", presented in the city of Haifa, is the second part of the 5th Mediterranean Biennale (2023-24). For the first time this year, the biennale's first part is held outside of Israel, in Istanbul, under the title "I am another you, you are another me," thus realizing the biennale's vision for an intercultural discourse in the Mediterranean basin.