Tel Hai 90
Tali Kayam
From a historical perspective, it can be said in general that the 1990s saw many cultural and artistic events take shape in the periphery that even outdid and shone brighter than the Tel Hai events.[1] The process of doing away with the platform began when, in 1990, the first Biennale of Sculpture in Ein Hod was held under the title “Nature Built a Museum for Us,” without so much as a curatorial word of the Tel Hai events as a prototype, even though the Tel Hai event was happening in the background at the same time.[2]
The Tel Hai 90 event was once again curated by Flor Bex, marking a decade since the first Tel Hai Contemporary Art event and taking place between the 20th to the 23rd of September, 1990. “While the previous events were focused purely on art, this time the share of art decreased while the share of industry and entertainment increased,” wrote Haim Maor, blaming the Tel Hai College which “has not been able to properly maintain the dozens of sculptures left over from the previous events and turn them into a sculpture garden.”[3] He concluded that this was due to the Upper Galilee communities’ lack of interest in the event and a consequent lack of budget. Tel Hai 90 included a photo exhibition of 50 industrial factories in the Upper Galilee which were also presented at the initiative of Steph Wertheimer, who was celebrating the opening of the Tel Hai Industrial Park, which later became the Museum of Photography and has since closed.[4]
Behind the scenes, it seemed that the organization of the event did not make any progress since the 87 meeting. This in addition to the feeling that the event was revealed to be un-alternative with no right to exist without the presence of prominent artists. Igal Meron, who coordinated the event on behalf of the college, noted that: “The event planning began late … top artists have to be booked two to three years in advance and when they are missing, the event’s value drops.” It was said too that Flor Bex himself did not participate in the production effort and there was disappointment that not enough artists or curators attended.[5]
The following article was taken from a chapter of the thesis ‘A Center Everywhere: Art platforms in Israel’s geographic margins in the 1980s as a tool for creating cultural and symbolic wealth’ (title translated from Hebrew), towards a master’s degree as part of the program “Policy and Theory of the Arts” at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, supervised by Professor Yael Guilat and Dr. Tal Ben Zvi.
[1] Guilat, “Tel Hai Encounters,” 30.
[2]This biennale continued through the 1990s, first curated by Meir Aharonson and later by Micha Levin (1994) and Naoi Aviv (1997). The biennale aspired to represent Israeli artists and was not characterized by site-specific works: “Environmental conditions were described to artists out loud. Almost none of the artists came to check out the space and adapt their sculpture to it.” See Meir Aharonson, curator, “The sculpture biennale -- Ein Hod, 1990,” Nature built us a museum, Sculpture in the human dimension, (Ein Hod: 1990) (exhibition catalogue). [In Hebrew]
[3]Meor, Haim, “The Tel Hai spirit has not disappeared,” Newspaper name and date unavailable,19. From the library reference room at Hashomer Hatzair Archive - Yad Yaari. [In Hebrew]
[4]See chapter, “The dynamic in the art field in the 1980s,” Yael Guilat, Lost generation: young artists in the 1980s in Israeli art. (Sde Boker: Ben Gurion Institute for Israel and Zionism Research, 2019), 97.
[5]See Appendix 3: Tel Hai 1990 events summary meeting, from Nusbaum, “Tel Hai Events”. [In Hebrew]
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