The Goat
Rotem Ritov
Accompanying text: Assi Meshulam
05.12.2019 - 03.01.2020
The Goat
In the solo exhibition The Goat, Rotem Ritov invites the viewers to take part in an imaginary ritual, and by doing so, to receive a good luck charm. The gallery space is transformed into a large-scale installation consisting of four areas that form an interactive path for worship. The components of the exhibition, the method of installation, the materials, the symbolism and the objects, echo local historical cultural traditions and their appearance in art history. A goat mask resembling the biblical period, a landscape painting by Claude Monet, an outpost from the Benjamin Mountains, and a Bedouin-style offering-basin are some of the objects that constitute and narrate the path and the essence of the ritual. In order to receive the good luck charm, one has to take part of a ceremony: to cast and shatter a clay stone on the golden wall, to offer alms inside a horn, and to leave an offering in front of the goat mask.
The Goat is a continuation of Ritov's work that is driven by questions about the essence of territory, locality, identity, connections and implications of the past on the present, and the significance and the presence of images and symbols in the public and social space.
The exhibition is accompanied by a contemplative text written by Assi Meshullam.
About the artist:
Rotem Ritov, born in 1974, is an independent multidisciplinary artist and a member of the Alfred cooperative. She is a graduate of the Department of Architecture at the The NB Haifa School of Design. She lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Burn the Bridges Down:
The Goat is the eighth exhibition in the annual theme of 2019, which is dedicated to exhibitions relating to the concept Burn Your Bridges Down.
The word Bridge describes an architectural functional structure that connects two places, and is commonly used as a metaphor. The command Burn your bridges is used as a strategic plan in situations of siege or persecution.
Bridges symbolize physical and mental territories, changes and transitions between periods and interpersonal relationships. We are accustomed to thinking that the path to growth and progress must be based on creating continuity and bridging gaps. Sometimes, however, the only way to move on, to reinvent ourselves, to rise up like a phoenix from the painful memories, is to sever the relationship irreversibly. To burn the bridges so that we can no longer go back, in order to prevent demons from the past from continuing to persecute us.
In the 2019 exhibition we will examine the concept of burn your bridges down from a variety of aspects: personal, intimate, political, historical, gender and social.