The Refrigerator (HaMecarer)
Boris Oicherman, Michal Alpern, Sharon Balaban, Yair Gutterman, Maya Gelfman, Shlomi Greenspan, Roi Carmeli, Nina Mendelsohn, Rotem Manor and Ktura Manor, Naomi Slaney, Shachaf Predilailo, Yaara Zach, Scandar Copti, Rafi Balbirski, Yael Balaban, Ethel Gutmann, Ben Livne Weitzman, Tamar Lederberg, Galit Monavi, Inbar Frim, Yinon Avior, Yonatan Ullman, Inbal Hershtig, Vienne Chan, Maiada Aboud, Dalia Gottlieb, Shahar Yahalom and Noga Shatz (Echo Bench), Sara Laviashvili, Ori Sonnenschein, Tehila Lapidot and Michal Abulafia, Eyal Migdalovich, Michal Naaman, Nitzan Satt, Iris Pshedezki, Haviva Pedaya, Etti Abergel, Izik Badash, Yoram Blumenkrantz, Orna Ben Shitrit, Leor Grady, Lakya Yardeny, Sigal Morad Eshed, Merav Sudaey. Yosef Ozer, Shimon Pinto, Israel kabala, Shula Keshet
Collaboration with Slow Food Israel | the visual theater Clipa | Sipur Pashut and Ex Libris
Production and curating: Omri Ben Artzi, Iris Pshedezki and Gili Zaidman
28-30.05.2015, 86 Hashmonaim Street, below ground, Tel Aviv
The Refrigerator is a multidisciplinary art event in an industrial space that previously served as a central Cold Storage at the Tel Aviv-Jaffa wholesale market.
The Cold Storage was founded in 1965. In the 1980’s it changed owners, the structure underwent renovation and business – consisting of storing produce and transporting it to the adjacent market and local businesses – was booming. When the wholesale market closed in 2006 the Cold Storage was also closed. It is scheduled to resume commercial activity in January 2016, but for the time being the building stands derelict, on its air conditioners, huge propellers, forklifts, wood pallets, and empty cardboard packaging.
The story of a distinctly marginal area, which over time became a coveted land with high commercial value, serves as the basis for evoking social, political, urban, and ecological thought. The exhibition in the underground space wishes to serve as a platform for dealing with contents that reside below the surface by addressing images of preserving, storing, cooling, and extending natural time.
The entrance to the hidden refrigerator space seemingly ‘peels off’ the visible layers and reveals an underground site that ultimately serves as the city’s subconscious. The combination of the structure’s details along with new artworks, most of which were created especially with and for this space, generates an overall experience that connects the cultural with the physical, the industrial with the artistic, and the found with the imagined. The Refrigerator is an independent event, joined by over 50 artists and creators.
When we began this adventure we could not imagine the extent of its growth. We met many artists and organizations that crave to make art, that want to initiate and create. We are thankful to everyone who took part in the event’s success and invite you to enter the refrigerator.