As part of the exhibition Returning to Nature – an initiative of the Jerusalem Botanical Garden and in collaboration with Outset Israel– sixteen sculptures by leading Israeli artists have been installed throughout the gardens.
Among the works on display are iconic sculptures by artists like Menashe Kadishman and Dani Karavan, works by established artists such as Tsibi Geva, Yehudit Sasportas and Sigalit Landau, and works by younger artists such as Ella Littwitz, Yaara Zach, Moshe Roas and Saher Miari.
The project included two newly commissioned site-specific works, produced with the support of Outset, in the context of the exhibition: the Israel debut of a chapter from the work Liquid Desert by Yehudit Sasportas, and a sound work by Maya Dunietz, which responds to the sounds and rustle of the garden. Maya's work Chapters for the Garden was donated to the garden's permanent collection on behalf of Outset and our supporters.
The different works were spread throughout the garden at numerous spots, some of which were more visible while others were hidden from sight. Their manner of installation called on visitors to follow a circular path; as they trod through it, they could discover both the greenery they were surrounded by and the art.
Some of the sculptures appeared to respond to the shrubbery around them, conducting a dialogue with it that is at once formal, material and narrative. Other works seemed to stand out from their surroundings, thereby insisting on maintaining their foreignness within the natural space. Thus, the exhibition combined vertical, monumental, sculpture and horizontal sculptures, that sprawled throughout the garden and responded to its features instead of breaching its confines. Together, the various works reflected a rich and layered range of local sculptural work.
The title of the exhibition attested to the return to the outside after a long period of closure due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, but also to a dimension of returning to nature present in the local sculptural language. In this context, the exhibition shed light on the constant pendulum swing between works that rely on the use of defined outlines and heavy materials like iron or bronze and works that use synthetic materials like rubber, latex or polyester as well as softened and rounded forms.
