Hansen | הנסן

The exhibit presents fragments from a rich and unique world. In the past, Mendes-Flohr was the sole guest at the Paradise Inn, a temporary structure constructed in the Hansen House garden and which only the artist could enter. During his stay at the Paradise, Mendes-Flohr created survival systems out of what was at hand in the garden as well as kinetic sculptures, including a mythological snake trapped in perpetual motion in one of the cracks through which spectators could observe the Paradise. The snake’s vertebrae were made from a sawed branch from one of the historical cypress trees of the Hansen House garden.

In his present exhibit, a water system begins in one of the pools in the hospital’s cellar and travels between the exhibit’s works to create an autarchic artistic system. Beyond water’s natural force, human control over the presence or absence of water in the day to day (diverting it, blocking access to it, evaporation, over-use, etc.), can have an influence on life or death. Mendes-Flohr’s unique use of water emphasizes this potential: water drives the aesthetic and sculptural course of the exhibit; it is its designing force.

“That we’ve forgotten the rain…” also offers a look into Mendes-Flohr’s laboratory-studio, where  visitors will discover the world of the artist, researcher, and inventor: preparatory sketches for the present exhibit, parts of previous works that undergo a metamorphosis into new works and works in progress.

The exhibit is a continuation of Mendes-Flohr’s ongoing collaboration with Sala-Manca Group, which began in 2011 when he was an artist-in-residence at the Mamuta Center in Ein Karem. Since then Mendes-Flohr has participated in dozens of projects curated by Sala-Manca, in which his works have stood out for their poetical quality and the way in which they interweave nature, the human touch, and mechanical structures.