Getting Lost
Curator: Dafna Kron
Artists: Rosanna Zünd, Hugit Unmani Rubinstein, Moshe silver, Matvey shapiro, bar altaras, yifeat ziv, Faye shapiro, Meital covo, Great gehenna choir.
Sound Art Event at the The Israeli Center for Digital Art in collaboration with students of the Advanced Studies – Experimental Music and Sound Art Program and guest sound artists.
Leave the door open to the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from. And where you will go.
Certainly for artists of all stripes, the unknown, the idea or the form or the tale that has not yet arrived is what must be found. It is the job of artists to open doors and invite in prophesies, the unknown, the unfamiliar. “Live always at the edge of mystery’- the boundary of the unknown”.
In Walter Benjamin’s terms, to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery…
The word lost comes from the old Norse los, meaning the disbanding of an army.. Suggest soldiers falling out of formation to go home. I worry now that many people never disband their armies, never go beyond what they know. Advertising, alarmist, news, technology, incessant busyness and the design of public and private space conspire to make it so.
Certainly for artists of all stripes, the unknown, the idea or the form or the tale that has not yet arrived is what must be found. It is the job of artists to open doors and invite in prophesies, the unknown, the unfamiliar. “Live always at the edge of mystery’- the boundary of the unknown”.
In Walter Benjamin’s terms, to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery…
The word lost comes from the old Norse los, meaning the disbanding of an army.. Suggest soldiers falling out of formation to go home. I worry now that many people never disband their armies, never go beyond what they know. Advertising, alarmist, news, technology, incessant busyness and the design of public and private space conspire to make it so.
A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit
Getting lost is both an active and a passive state, liberating and shadowing, enchanting and threatening at the same time. Traditionally it is a state of crisis, when one is lost and does not know where to turn. However, as Solnit sees it, it is also a state of transfiguration, full of mystery and laden with cultural contexts.
Getting lost is a mental, conscious and geographical stance. It is a cry against the capitalist zeitgeist which glorifies “achievements”, “goals”, “destinations”. This fluid state contradicts the notion of man in control of his life, his routine, his purposes.
It can also be read as a fantasy of revelation, of being present and of “finding” yourself. A fantasy of separation, individualisation, freedom and seclusion. These utopian readings of “lostness” are in complete contrast to our contemporary era in which we are constantly monitored by alternating WiFi spaces and where it has become harder to get lost more than ever.
The sound event “Getting Lost” was spread across the building of the Digital Art Center in Holon. The event included installations and participatory works. It was concluded with a live performance by The Great Gehenna Choir.
