E x c a v a t i o n M a r k ! R e v e a l P r e s e r v e G l o r i f y

Opening: October 24, 7 pm
Vernissage performance by Jason King with Max Clausen and Louisa Raspé, 8:30 pm

Closing: November 23, 2pm

View Invitation

Artists: Ilit Azoulay > Maayan Elyakim > Olivia Hild > Patrick Hough >
Ronnie Karfiol > Jason King > Matan Oren > Peles Empire

Curator: Amit Shemma

Hansen House - Centre for Design, Media and Technology
14 Gedalyahu Alon St., Jerusalem, Israel
Hours: Sunday-Thursday 10:00-18:00 Friday 10:00-14:00

Free and open to the public

excavationmark.com

Following its dictionary definition, the purpose of «Archaeology» as a science and as a ethodology is to locate, study, and preserve human history. In this way, the field of research  ttempts to define and to describe a continuous historical sequence by analyzing similarities and differences in order to classify and characterize human cultures based on real objects. These actual objects, discovered intentionally or accidentally, from the depths of the earth or from the seabed, are at the center of the «archaeological metaphor», which shed light on the parallel between the archeologist's practice and that of the artist. This metaphor has less to do with the
similarities between the art object's final form and that of the artefact loosed from the earth, and more to do with the way both are revealed. The group exhibition Excavation Mark! Reveal Preserve Glorify, diagnoses and thereby emphasizes the growing tendency of contemporary artists to harness the «archaeological metaphor» in their own practices, which interrogate the revelation, preservation, and glorification of methods, objects of research, and different ideologies underlying process, often through the very act of excavation itself.

This confrontation between artist and archaeology, upon the site of the metaphor, raises questions about the continuity of history and challenges "timelines" that conceal more than they reveal. Lik e anarchic archaeologists, their actions seek to unravel the threads patiently woven by the historians, trough multiplying differences, blurring lines of communication, and placing hazards where before there was the assumption of easy passage. The contributing artists were selected based on their intentional approaches to the relation between process and its object, approaches that exacerbate the tensions of the «archaeologic al metaphor».

The exhibition was conceived during the studies in the Master Program in Policy and Theory of the Arts at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem.

For all press enquiries please contact: excavation.mark.exhibition@gmail.com

In partnership with Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem; Hansen House - Centre for Design,
Media and Technology. Excavation Mark! is made possible with support of Artport, Tel-Aviv; Culture Ireland;
Austrian Cultural Forum, Tel-Aviv; Goethe Institut, Israel.

Credit for images:
Patrick Hough, And If In A Thousand Years, (still from video), 2017, HD video, 22:14 min.,
courtesy of the artist and Jerwood/FVU Awards.
Peles Empire, Duo, (detail), 288 A3 colour copies, dimensions variable, Courtesy of the
artists and Wentrup Gallery, Berlin (photos by Trevor Good)