Exhibitions

The Bible says: "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain" (Proverbs, 31, 30). It seems our culture prefers to reject this ancient wisdom, preferring the lie and the deceptive outward appearance, as if it were the obvious choice. In this context, art historian Gideon Ofrat writes that "commercials never stop lying to us […] politicians never stop offering false promises before elections, in empty 'visions of peace'; public relations experts and spokesmen have become con-artists on retainers. Wherever we turn, whenever we open our eyes and our ears – lies surround us. It is as if we have accepted non-truth as the verdict of our existence."

The exhibition addresses the phenomenon of overload in the post-fact age, which is characterized by exaggerated reliance on social media as a source of knowledge. This tendency stems from a loss of faith in the official, journalistic, and news-oriented institutions, and from data overflow. Today, an endless stream of stimuli masks the truth and makes good judgment and clear messaging difficult. The exhibition seeks to explore how this phenomenon of overload is expressed in art, presenting projects by three artists: Ronit Baranga, Cristina De Middel, and Alon Kedem.

The authentic identity at the heart of modern Western culture was formulated by numerous philosophers. The authentic individual, according to Friedrich Nietzsche, is the "Superman" (Übermensch), who rises above himself and replaces God as the creator of the universe. Martin Heidegger articulated the call for authenticity by placing man in a constant free movement toward self-realization, peaking in the individual's solitary confrontation with his own demise, which is nothingness. Jean-Paul Sartre defined the authentic man as he who is sentenced to liberty and acknowledges the void as the heart of his existential identity.

French philosopher Michel Foucault claimed that power is not the result of institutions, but rather a kind of creative entity in and of itself, defining man in relation to himself, and organizing social relations. This entity spreads its wings over both rulers and ruled, in a complex network that determines the limits of power and its legal enforcement. In contemporary politics power operates as a "post-truth regime," using alternative facts, generalizations, and subtle manipulations to influence the public's emotions and thereby control public discourse. In this age, strong opinion matters more than facts.

In 2003, the Haifa Museum of Art held the exhibition "Video Zero: Communication Interferences: The Projected Image – The First Decade." This exhibition sought to address the lack of philosophical and critical discussion of the medium of video art in the Israeli art scene. The exhibition focused on the medium's early days, beginning in the 1960s during the cultural revolutions that sought to challenge the hegemony of the establishment.

This exhibition addresses the role of the poster in the internet age, with the emergence of a new public space that places no clear limits on what can be advertised and where. While Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube do choose to censor the content they host according to guidelines that determine which content may offend their user community, a significant amount goes undetected by "Big Brother."

In the press and in the media – whether printed, broadcast, or published online – we are presented with distorted information. This commissioned, filtered information is carefully chosen and edited before invading our lives and dictating our actions. The exhibiting artists seek to expose and emphasize the contexts and conditions in which data and news items are organized and presented. They explore the system of socio-political, technological, and economic forces that mobilize the media industry.