Bypasses – From Middle East Abstract to Hamid My Darling

Bypass, a project in progress by artist Haim Ben Shitrit will be presented in the center during March- May. The project will relate to the artist’s work over the last two decades by using his painting, video works and installations as materials for a process that will transform their representation into a new work within the given time and space. The project will include several meetings in the Center for Digital Art.

First Chapter: Middle East Abstract, Secret Mission

“But what are these strange paintings that he paints? Are they a mechanical recycling of the heroic abstracts of the 1940s and 1950s, a sort of low brow comics’ interpretation of the sublime high painting? Are they local Levantine decorative observations of the modern Western canon? Or are these authentic “soul paintings” expressing an authentic personal experience? Ben Shitrit runs from dogmatic definitions like a plague. He prefers the abandoned margins of ideologies over their final and correct facades. His paintings exist in the neglected space between doctrines, in the suspension of time between conclusions. Under the linear “official” chronology of art history, he finds an alternative living space, an underworld of images, an oppressed underground of shapes and colors thrilled to come into the open air, to meet the viewer and to generously please his senses.” (Larry Abramson, 1992)

This chapter will re-examine Ben Shitrit’s “Middle East Abstract” paintings from the early 1990s and the video work “Secret Mission” in which these paintings act as the main protagonists. These will make up the basis for a new video-sound work which will be placed in the exhibition space and which will refer to the norms of paintings display. The exhibition’s placements will consider the option of integrating some of the original paintings.

Second Chapter: The Gamal-Gamil Gamal Riddle

“On one of the gallery’s walls Ben Shitrit hung a silhouette of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser made of ground molokhyia. “During my work process I thought about the character of Gamal Abdul Nasser,” Ben Shitrit relates “about how his character terrified me. Nasser was scary on the one hand, but on the other he was like my mother, a native of Alexandria. He must have loved molokhiya too. When I read about the Free Officers Coup in Egypt I was surprised to discover that molokhiya was mentioned as an antithesis to the “foiegras” [a French cuisine] that King Farouq used to eat.” (Dalia Karpel, Haaretz Magazine 1997)

The components of this chapter will be the installations “Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud” (1996), “Molokhiya” (1997), “The Abu Gosh Riddle” (1998-1999) and the video work “Molokhiya” (2006) based on a project in Brighton, England. “Gamil Gamal,” a new video work involving selected speeches by Nasser and Farid Al-Atrash’s song “Gamil Gamal,” will serve as the framework for the exhibition placement, which will also include objects relating to the original exhibitions displaying the works. 

On Saturday at 20:00 the second event of the project Bypasses took place. Haim Ben-Shitrit presented a new installation using materials from the video work "Molokhiya"( and from selected speeches by Gamal Abdul Nasser. In the event, a lecture was given by Dr. Moshe Albo, about Gamal Abdul Nasser, president of Egypt in the 50s and 60s, in relation to the current day revolutions in Egypt and the Middle East.     

Third Chapter: The Journey of Fibi and Abdul Wadud 

In this chapter, Ben Shitrit addresses two of the main characters of his works during the last decade, Phoebe Swissa and Abdul Wadud. Phoebe was well known in Jerusalem as the warm hearted owner of the mythological kiosk "The Zigmons". Wadud, a middle- eastern version of "Woody Allen", was the main character of a Syrian film from the 80’s called "The Borders".This chapter will address the following video works: “Fibi, Conversations with Abdul Wadud” (2002), “Anonymous Soldiers, Don’t Tell Your Mother” (2004), “From the Streets of Jerusalem to the Palaces of London” (2006), “Conversations with Abdul Wadud 2” (2003), “No Jonny No” (2006), and “The Evil Bong-a-Bong” 2007. These visual representations will be the basis of a new video work.

On Saturday, April 23^rd, Haim Ben Shitrit will conclude the third chapter of the project "Bypasses": The Journey of Phoebe and Abdul Wadud. Ben Shitrit will be in the gallery during opening hours (10:00- 15:00), and will gladly answer the visitors’ questions. At 13:30 Ben Shitrit will talk about his work while screening video’s that were not included in the exhibition.   

Fourth Chapter: Preludes Hamid, Always Preludes 

This chapter will be saturated with fragments from the previous chapters and at this stage will be less defined. Materials for this chapter are the video work “Ruhi” (2007), “love comes to an end” (2008), “Yunes” (2009), “The English Teacher” (2010) and images printed on different materials. Part of this chapter will be a dialogue with the work of the Israeli composer Israel Sharon, a sample of which appears in “love comes to an end.”

The concluding event will be on May 14^th

On May 14th, the forth and concluding chapter Bypasses, took place - "Prelude Hamid Prelude". The new video piece was influenced by the dialogue between Ben Shitrit and the composer Israel Sharonand and the Kaprisma ensemble.

A music performance by Kaprisma was performed at 21:30.