The-Island-was-a-World_catalogue-digital

20 So it keeps developing? "Yes. So far, I have mostly engaged with a given space (the four floors of Mount Zero) * or one that was specially designed (How to Disappear Completely), ** and I aimed for an overlap between the physical space of the exhibition and what may become an experiential and mental space for the viewer. In the current cycle, I aim for the island and the film itself to be the space, which will continue to be populated by paintings and other images that will appear in future exhibitions. "There's something special about your paintings. They're never just canvases hanging on the wall, like windows to a landscape. They always engage the viewer's consciousness, playing with the gap between illusion and reality in a subtle and poetic choreography. You once told me you're interested in exploring the relationship between 'seeing' and 'believing.' Yes, painting demands two things from us: seeing and believing. Looking at a wall is seeing. Looking at a painting on a wall is seeing and trying to believe. Believing that there's a 'there' in painting, that it is one more kind of reality, a virtual one, and that when we choose to believe our imaginations, we can step into it and see 'something'. My daily practice takes place within the physical space of the studio. My job is to apply paint to canvas, to meet surfaces, to work not only with sight but also with touch. I am especially engaged with the changing distance between me and the painting on the wall. From afar, the painting is an image; we can describe 'what's painted.' But up close, the image breaks down. All that's left is line, stain, color, material—painting itself. Painting allows for both states, for what happens from afar and what happens up close. The illusion and the disillusionment, between what I believed I was seeing a moment ago and what I actually see. Where is the image created, on the canvas or in my mind?" What do your two epic projects – the exhibition How to Disappear Completely (2018) at the Israel Museum and Mount Zero (2020) at the Building Gallery in Milan – share with the current project? Those were such broad, deep, and extended explorations that I do not doubt continue. "I think all of them are about disappearing, and what comes after it. Disappearing in death, disappearing in renunciation, and disappearing as a necessary condition for anything new to * https://www.oreneliav.com/the-moon-is-a-mirror ** https://bravermangallery.com/exhibitions/the-moon-is-a-mirror