The Mediterranean Biennale is celebrating its tenth anniversary

Living Together – Crossing Borders

Director&Curator: Belu-Simion Fainaru, Avital Bar-shay

The 2021 Mediterranean Biennale is an art event held in public spaces in the city of Haifa and in the Sakhnin Valley. This year, in view of the recent peace agreements, it will feature artists from Bahrain, Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, Turkey, and other countries, alongside local artists, with the hope of creating a dialogue with diverse cultural groups and communities through art.

A Mediterranean-minded art event, the Biennale plays an important role in forming a new network of connections between artists from countries in the region, based on cultural systems where art can respond and act, offering a space in which different voices and manifestations of local practice can be heard and seen.

Participating artists:
AES+F (Russia), HANNAN ABU-HUSSEIN (Israel), LELA AHMADZAI (Germany / Afghanistan), RASHID AL KHALIFA (Bahrain), NEVIN ALADAĞ (Germany / Turkey), ANNA ANDERS (Germany),CARLOS AMORALES(Mexico), ABIR ATALLA (Israel), AVITAL BAR-SHAY(Israel), AVNER BEN-GAL (Israel), JANET BIGGS (USA), IRINA BOTEA BUCAN & JON DEAN (Romania / UK), THORSTEN BRIKMAN (Germany)RAAYA BRUKENTHAL (Israel), MICHAL CHELBIN (Israel), CHTO DELAT (Russia), EDUARD CONSTANTIN (Romania), TRACEY EMIN(UK), BELU-SIMION FAINARU (Israel), REUT FERSTER (Israel), SHIRA GEPSTIEN-MOSHKOVICH (Israel), AMOS GITAI (Israel), ADRIAN GHENIE (Germany / Romania)ION GRIGORESCU (Romania), NETA ISHAY (Israel), ORIT ISHAY (Israel), BOAZ KAIZMAN (Germany / Israel), MUHAMMAD SAID KALLASH(Israel), ALI KAZMA (Turkey), HACER KIROGLU (Turkey), DANIEL KNORR (Germany / Romania), JANNIS KOUNELLIS (Italy), ANNA LUKASHEVSKY (Israel), IDDO MARKUS (Israel),ALMAGUL MENLIBAYEVA (Germany / Kazakhstan), CIPRIAN MURESAN (Romania), HIAM MUSTAFA (Israel), ARASH NASSIRI (France / Iran)KARAM NATOUR (Israel), IULIA NISTOR (Germany / Romania), BOAZ NOY (Israel), MARIO PFEIFER (Germany)MANUEL SAIZ (Spain), SHAHAR SIVAN (Israel), FATMA SHANAN (Israel), ANGELIKA SHER (Israel)KHEN SHISH (Israel), MICHA ULLMAN(Israel), SAMIRA WAHABI (Israel), OR FAINARU (Israel), KAY WALKOWIAK (Austria)CLEMENS VON WEDEMEYER (Germany), PAVEL WOLBERG (Israel), SHARON YAARI(Israel), OLA ZAITOUN (Israel), HECTOR ZAMORA (Portugal / Mexico), AMIRA ZIAN (Israel), NATALIA ZURABOVA (Israel)

The Mediterranean Biennale is celebrating its tenth anniversary since its inauguration in 2010 as a model for multicultural cooperation and dialogue spanning diverse outlooks and opinions held by different communities and groups. It offers a venue in which one may discuss social issues relevant to contemporary society and explore art as a bridge between cultures.

Entitled “LIVING TOGETHER—CROSSING BORDERS,” this year the Biennale seeks to reinforce social solidarity, delving into the notion of the city as a shared public space, in response to the Coronavirus crisis and its aftershocks. It sustains interpersonal interaction beyond borders in a time of travel restrictions and social distancing. The Mediterranean Biennale offers an alternative platform, highlighting the local processes being created in the region and enhancing their cultural impact by means of art directed toward the community; art that emerges from the museum walls and integrates with the city. The city becomes a place for artistic thinking and inspiration, and a laboratory for ideas and creativity.

The city will serve the Biennale as a meeting point for artists, artworks, and audiences. Through art, viewers will be able to explore different parts of the city, wander around and discover the urban spaces and the people living in them. The Biennale asks how to build and maintain structures of solidarity to counter isolation in light of current restrictions. It will function as a locus that brings people from different cultures together, striving to introduce art as a a tool that shortens distances and expands possibilities, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences even when physically distanced.

The 4th Mediterranean Biennale will present work by 50 participants, approximately half of them from overseas, including artists from Middle Eastern countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Bahrain, etc., whose work will be featured throughout Haifa’s German Colony, and later this year—in the Sakhnin Valley. In Haifa, the works will be presented in alternative spaces, such as the NB Haifa School of Design, which will be the main venue, as well as at the Colony Hotel, in cafes, a hair salon, the City Center Mall, and a hookah (Nargila) bar—venues that form an urban walking route.
The exhibition was initiated by Haifa-based entrepreneurs and curators, Avital Bar-Shay and Belu-Simion Fainaru, in collaboration with the NB Haifa School of Design, where the main exhibition will be staged, as well as the owners of the cafes, hotels, and mall. All of them have come together and taken the initiative to conceive of an art event as a focal point of cooperation, experience, and learning.

Biennale site: https://mediterraneanbiennale.com/

Venues: Main exhibition: NB Haifa School of Design; City Center Mall; Café Aroma, 8 Ben Gurion Blvd, Haifa; the Colony Hotel, 28 Ben Gurion Blvd, Haifa; Daniel Hair Salon, 36 Ben Gurion Blvd, Haifa; Kingdom Bar, 37 Ben Gurion Blvd, Haifa; Strudel Restaurant, 39 Ben Gurion Blvd, Haifa; Haifa Tourist Board, 48 Ben Gurion Blvd, Haifa, French Consulat Hagefen st. 37.