Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art—The South Gallery in collaboration with the Edmond de Rothschild Center 

The Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art presents a new exhibition in the South Gallery featuring five original projects by graduates of the Edmond de Rothschild Center Network. The artists were selected through a public call for entries and this is their first extensive display in a museum exhibition.

Looking at past traditions, the five artists embark on ancient stories, rituals and rites, as well as personal narratives of family history and youthful memories. The return to a place that no longer exists takes place through an encounter with legends, myths, and archetypes—and entails thinking about expressions of belonging, their own voices, and their place in the present. 

At the heart of the creative act is the human urge to conjure a world ab nihilo; to turn thought into matter and dream into reality. In Jorge Luis Borges’s story The Circular Ruins, this desire is realized when a person arrives at the ruins of an ancient temple with the aim of performing magic: to dream a man and make it a reality. Night after night, he creates him in his imagination, limb by limb, only to discover that he, too, is nothing but someone else’s dream. The moment of discovery gives expression to the realization that each person is part of an endless stream of creation, part of a larger story—and raises questions about origins, reality, and context. 

Although each of these artists operates in a different artistic medium, all five look beyond it. Together, they offer a multifaceted exhibition. Engaging with recurring archetypes—bird, well, fire, tent, totem, and others—they are creators of their inner worlds while, at the same time, they are created by stories that preceded them and will remain after them.