"Distanced" - Residency Exhibition

12.12.2016

The Tiroche DeLeon and ST-ART collections’ latest joint residency has come to an end. This was the first residency held in the Red House, located in the trendy Shapira neighborhood in south Tel Aviv, a refreshing change of scenery from our last location in beautiful Jaffa. Over the course of the last two months, the young artists soaked up the Tel Aviv art scene and traveled the country in search for inspiration from their new environment.

Saturday, December 10th, marked the end of Mario Macilau and Terrence Musekiwa's residencies, with the exciting exhibition, "Distanced." Each artist presented a unique body of work created during their stay at the Red House. Visitors came to view the fascinating new works, and experienced a blend of African and Israeli cultural influences inevitably juxtaposed in the artworks.   

Terrence Musekiwa displayed an array of interesting sculptures, exhibiting both his impeccable craftsmanship and his individual aesthetic. Working with traditional techniques that he learnt from his stone carver ancestors while using found objects scattered in his new environment, Terrence produced works that embodied his reflection on different ways of life, such as religion, tradition and today's fast-paced life style. His life-size sculptures' visual language, with a bold use of bonds and sifters, spoke of connectivity and separation, and corresponded with the exhibition space and the spectators – both differentiating them and unifying them. 

Mario Macilau produced a series of twelve colossal photographs – portraits, each representing one of the twelve tribes, set on a different stone background, permeating the image. The blend of background and foreground exposed a tension between past and present; the stone background a remnant from an ancient past, the portrait a contemporary depiction of the today's local society. The large photographs hung at eye level, and the figures gazed back at the viewer, tying both components together into the fabric of contemporary society.

Although "Distanced" alludes to the remove between past and present, origin and current existence, the exhibition exposed the bridge between these opposing terms. Macilau's figures symbolize the twelve tribes, assumed founders of the people of Israel, manifested in the diverse population of Israel nowadays. The notion of tribes also refers to the traditional African tribal ancestry, Macilau's own personal roots. Terrence's works refer to biblical texts, believed to constitute our collective history, but discusses his view on contemporary life and on personal stories. His African homeland is also highly familiar with the bible and regard it a pillar of their own religious identity.  

We are extremely proud of the residency's finale and the successful collaboration with The Red House. Macilau and Musekiwa arrived as a pair of refreshing artistic minds, and left as pivotal components of the local art scene. Their works created a direct dialogue between Israel and Africa, past and present, and shared origins and contemporary diversity.

To view an exclusive interview with Terrence Musekiwa, click here.

To view our interview with Mario Macilau, click here.

To view the exhibition invitation click here.

To view Terrence Musekiwa's exhibited works click here.

To view Mario Macilau's exhibited works click here.