Conscious Collective, the Israeli melting pot on display at the MAXXI Museum in Rome

“How it is possible to rediscover a sense of collectivity even in a land where conflict is a constant and how accepting life with its contradictions may be the key to a better existence”. The exhibition Conscious Collective, on display in Rome at the MAXXI Museum until June 4, interrogates these issues through the works of Tsibi Geva, Maria Saleh Mahameed, and Noa Yekutieli. Rooted in individual biographies, their art portrays a complex cultural reality, between identity and place, memory, and ties, and what emerges is Israeli society’s dynamic melting pot.
Tsibi Geva (Israel, 1951), among the most internationally known interdisciplinary artists, lives and works between Tel Aviv and New York. His work “Where I come from” is a modular painting featuring canvases of different sizes presented as a collective unit, which summarizes his recurring motives. Maria Saleh Mahameed (Israel, 1990) born and raised in Israel’s most populated Arab city, is the daughter of a Palestinian father and a Ukrainian-Christian mother. In “Ludmilla”, she depicts an imaginary landscape that intertwines references to Umm el Fahem and Kyiv mixing Russian and Middle East elements. Finally, Noa Yekutieli (USA,1989), born in California to a Japanese mother and an Israeli father, who divides her time between Tel Aviv and Los Angeles, her work “Where We Stand”, a series of manual paper-cutting, evokes different scenarios, from natural landscapes to scenes of conflict and destruction.
“It is a diversity of voices that it is important to enhance”, remarked the Israeli ambassador Alon at the inauguration ceremony, to which participated the president of the MAXXI Foundation Alessandro Giuli, the curators Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Shai Baitel, and Elena Motisi. Also present was the cultural attaché of the embassy Maya Katzir, who spent a lot of effort on this initiative.
“At first sight, the points of divergence seem to outweigh those of affinity. Their narration, the means of expression they use, and their artistic intentions can even appear to be at odds with each other. Their works, with the Israeli and Palestinian realities as a backdrop, echo the constant state of conflict that rages within the region or themselves”, Baitel said. “And yet, despite these differences and divergences, these three artists share the miraculous bond of friendship”.

Photo Musacchio, Ianniello, Pasqualini & Fuccillo