In the course of the coming year, three exhibitions titled Hilchot Shchenim (from the ’Mishne Torah’ of the Rambam) will open. These exhibitions will be accompanied by films, video installations, computer works, photography, installation and sound art. In the course of these exhibitions, lectures and special workshops will be held; these will serve as a stage for ideas that revolve around art and communications, market and exchange and will examine the ways in which contemporary social, cultural and technological changes influence both art and artists. Chapter One of Hilchot Shchenim is an initial step towards the formation of a regional, cultural network that will serve as a stage for both artists and researchers for establishing relations with their colleagues from countries in the regions by means of a combination of the language of art with tools of modern day culture, various modes of communication, as well as using universal tools of communication and exchange in order to assign their activity broader contexts and support. Hilchot Shchenim will act as a meeting point for the research and investigation of a number of processes: The process of self-definition of Israeli society, which tends to fluctuate between Mizrachi and Ashkenazi, between Mediterranean and Western cultures; the process leads to a harsh cultural and national segregation towards the Middle Eastern region, while at the same time, almost totally adopting Western economics and culture. The strike roots process of new technologies in Israeli society and its establishment, while examining their various uses in a society whose military establishment is awarded a central portion of the national budget. We also consider the influence of the international game of power which on one hand sharpens expectations for a post-national world, in which priority is given to multi-national power, and on the other, encourages protection of the nation-state, which still maintains its sovereignty within clear political borders and which reserves a central place for ethnicity and religion. Hilchot Shchenim is an attempt to examine how these processes are expressed in artistic production as well as in the relationship between artist and society. These issues will be addressed in the local-Israeli context by establishing a connection with additional peripheries in which similar conflicts exist.
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