Alum

Dina Yakerson


Dina

During my studies in the program and with the help of the mentors, I worked on my final project “Graven Image” that was held at the Russian Museum of Ethnography in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The essence of the project was to create an intervention of contemporary Israeli art, within a permanent ethnographic exhibition within the museum. With that project I was aiming to create various dialogues: between contemporary art and ethnography, Israel and Russia, past and present.
I believe that the guidelines and help I received during my studies helped me realize this project and further develop my interest and practice in the curatorial field. Since then, I continue to think of ways to incorporate contemporary art in non-artistic environments, or to incorporate professionals from different fields within artistic projects and public programs. Another important aspect was the thesis that was written during the studies, which encouraged a research-based approach of the curatorial practice.

At the moment I am chief curator of Atlas chain of art-hotels in Israel, and chief curator of Agripas 12 – an artist-run gallery in Jerusalem. Other than that, I continuously work on individual projects with various contemporary artists. For example, in November 2016 I am curating a solo-exhibition by Mai Omer, which will be held at Alfred gallery in Tel Aviv, titled “Silent World”. This exhibition  concludes a 4-year research conducted by the artist on the abandoned Dolphinarium site in Tel Aviv. The project, among other things,  explores how architecture reflects socio-political agendas, and how a collective history and trauma can manifest in the public sphere. The exhibition will be followed by a vast public programming, which will include screenings, lectures and panels with architects, historians and other professionals.

I am interested in exploring prolonged artistic processes by means of working with one or few artists and purifying a certain concept or body of work derived from our mutual dialogue. I view the curatorial field as an enabling, inter-disciplinary tool, which can be used not only for creating ‘shows’ but also for creating completely new and innovative contexts, and thus expanding the artistic discourse.

I believe that by using the ‘curatorial wand’ one can open the art field and free it from its autonomic enclosure by mediating it to a broader audience and combining it with diverse professional fields. I believe in initiating interesting collaborations with professionals and institutes. The curatorial field for me is a tool which can entail many different activities and ideas; it is rather an approach that may generate thought-provoking projects, international collaborations and create new connections between ideas, artists, institutions and different professional mediums and practices.