Hansen | הנסן

The jewelry exhibition Signs and Wonders deals with the processes of turbulence that the Israeli identity is undergoing and reflects the tensions which have intensified in recent years, particularly in the wake of the events of October 7, 2023.

Anat Golan, a contemporary jeweler artist, deconstructs national symbols and historical narratives, recharging them with new values and ironic meaning. The jewelry and objects presented in the exhibition were created through disruption of form and material of figures, structures, and national symbols: David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, the Menorah emblem, the Knesset building, military ranks, and more. These works raise questions about the nostalgic collective memory and the destabilization of the Israeli ethos and the current crisis. Marking two years since the outbreak of the war, the exhibition focuses attention on the changes that have taken place in the collective memory and serves as a quiet testimony to the search for belonging, identity, healing and beauty within a vulnerable reality. Anat Golan—through jewelry making—and Limor Yossifon-Goldman— through architectural thinking—draw a clear connection between the personal and intimate object and the public, social and political space. The exhibition also includes archival items on loan from the “Iron Moulding Heritage Museum” in Kibbutz Tze’elim, including metalwork from the Jerusalem workshop of the Kretchmer family—reliefs, medals and emblems that accompanied the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel from its inception to recent years. These items served as inspiration for the new works and spark a dialogue between the past and the present, between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary jewelry making.

The exhibition was first shown at the BY5 Gallery in Tel Aviv.