The exhibition “The Movement: The Kibbutz in Israeli Art” is concerned with the kibbutz as a unique phenomenon – focusing on artists who live or lived on various kibbutzim, ones working both within and outside the kibbutz, as well as ones who responded to or were influenced by the kibbutz world. The exhibition was conceived in the weeks and months following October 7, 2023 – a period in which the kibbutzim took center stage and became the focus of public discourse in Israel, reawakening an interest in their historical, ideological, social, and geographical contexts. This turning point also led to a process of self-reckoning in the kibbutzim themselves. Although the exhibited works were not created following these events or in reference to them, the exhibition’s presentation of the kibbutz from both historical and contemporary perspectives was shaped by this moment in time. As such, it sheds light on concerns pertaining to everyday kibbutz life, on the changes it has undergone, and as well as with the experience of life in Israel, as inextricably intertwined. The exhibition’s four parts – Kibbutz Modernism, Man. Yard. Landscape, HaMeshutaf Kibbutz and Individual Voices – offer one among many possible viewpoints, and do not presume to fully encompass the richness or range of art related to the kibbutz. Rather than pointing to prominent themes, artworks, or artists, each part seeks to present a network of connections, influences and quotations. Gabriella Willenz’s contribution, “[Not a] Decoration Committee,” can also be viewed as an “exhibition within an exhibition.” In the context of the exhibition “The Movement,” it offers a visual and interpretive framework within which she acts as a theater director or conductor of an orchestra of artists, symbols and images, which have shaped the language of kibbutz art
