Tsibi Geva Will Represent Israel at the 56th Venice Biennale

Tsibi Geva has been selected to present a site-specific art installation, “Archeology of the Present,” at this year’s Israeli Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.

The 63-year-old artist lives and works in Tel Aviv and has exhibited extensively in major exhibitions worldwide, including Kunsthaus Zürich; Orangerie Herrenhausen, Hannover; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and MACRO Testaccio, Rome.

An influential member of the Israeli art scene since the 1980s, Geva has been honored with multiple awards, including the Sandberg Prize from the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Pundick Prize from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israeli Ministry of Culture.

Geva’s exhibit will juxtapose paintings with sculptural installations and found elements related to the home, such as terrazzo tiles, windows, shutters, lattices, and cement blocks.

According to a press release, the installation will address “political and cultural questions of locality and immigration, hybrid identity, existential anxiety and existence in an age of instability.”

Hadas Maor, curator of the Israeli Pavilion, promises that Geva’s installation will engage in “issues of the stratified structure of identity,” a theme the artist has returned to again and again.

“The physical layout will create sharp transitions between experiences of blockage, discomfort, and spatial ambiguity and between intimate, poetic moments, so that fragility and crudeness, lyricism and violence, are inextricably intertwined,” said Maor.


Follow Artnet News on Facebook:


Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.
Article topics