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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Shutters and Stairs: Elements of Modern Architecture in Contemporary Art

Aug 13 – Dec 31, 2020
Derech Ruppin, Jerusalem, Israel

We tend to view an architect’s work as a structural whole, an integrated space, but this exhibition hones in on the parts—floors, walls, doors, hardware—and explores them in the context of contemporary art. “Shutters and Stairs,” curated from the museum’s own collection, focuses on contemporary work inspired by the geometries and abstractions of modern architecture. Highlights include Tsibi Geva’s Shutter Wall, a huge arrangement of taped windows and discarded shutters found in the street after the First Gulf War, and Noa Yaffe’s Stairwell. Posing as the framed black-and-white photograph of a modernist staircase shot from above, Stairwell is in fact a 3D model positioned beyond an opening cut into the museum wall. “It’s a critique of our tendency to regard photographed images as a proxy for reality,” says exhibition curator Aya Miron, and an understated but forceful reminder for our Instagram-obsessed era. —J.V.

Noa Yaffe, “Stairwell,” 2017. Purchased through “Here & Now” Contemporary Israeli Art Acquisitions Committee.