Solo Exhibitions
Human Shield
Liebling Haus - White City Center, Tel aviv
1.8.2024-21.09.2024
Curator: Michal Krasny
The Liebling Haus Residency apartment hosts local artists for site-specific solo exhibitions.
The events of October 7th led artist Adi van Velsen to question issues related to existence in space.
The body of works presented is van Velsen’s attempt to locate the ability of the home (concrete and conceptual) to exist in a state of ruin while standing as a human shield and marker of territory and border. Press photos of the damage wrought by war and processes of deconstruction and reconstruction serve van Velsen to undo the constraints and context of the form, and to map areas and formal anchors that she could later use as foundations for construction. Through a repetitive act, she reveals outlines, creates topographic charts, and forms house-shaped porcelain objects that she hangs on the wall, precariously suspended between heaven and earth, waiting to crash.
Looking at the newly created surface, van Velsen sets up a sculptural installation that connects the porcelain objects and clumps of natural sandstone, while presenting a video work that amplifies the conflict that has reemerged in our present reality.
The exhibition centers around van Velsen's journey and her preoccupation with the question of whether it is possible, through some reorganization, to build a safe, protective home. Her works present a process of undoing and rebuilding, inviting viewers to contemplate questions of security, belonging and the desire for a connection between identity and home.