Exhibitions

The exhibition "Handmade Japan" focuses on a variety of creative endeavours that characterize Japanese artisanry from the past to the present, as expressed through diverse objects. Some of the objects displayed in the exhibition are from the collection of the museum's founder, Felix Tikotin, and others are the handiwork of local craftsmen from Israel and Japan: Pavel Dibrov, an Israeli kumiko artist (wooden objects decorated with or composed of small pieces of wood); Mo Sela, an artist, carpenter, and musician from Israel; Nobuya Yamaguchi, an iron sculptor, musician, and musical instrument maker living in Israel; Dafna Kafman, a glass artist; Tim Oder, a folding paper artist; Yael Harnik, a textile artist; Saori Kunihiro, a calligraphy and scroll artist from Kyoto; Emi Nakamura, a mizuhiki artist from Tokyo; Simon Fujiwara, a visual artist from Germany; Ichika Yoshida, a calligraphy artist from Tokyo; tops by the master Masaaki Hiroi and selected textile pieces from Adina Klein's Collection among others. The museum walls display photographs taken by French photographer Pierre-Élie de Pibrac during his eight-month journey in Japan, through which he immortalizes Japanese aesthetics in everyday life.

The concept of this exhibition touches on the three elements that make up the Great Wave -- wave, boats, and Mount Fuji. These elements are represented here in the works of Japanese and Israeli artists and are translated into the language of the period in which they were created. The element of the wave is examined through works in which it is a stylized force of nature, an ethereal boundary line, a metaphor for social isolation, and a representation of existential anxiety; not necessarily anxiety related to natural disasters. The element of boats between the waves is associated with works about war in Japanese art and with works dealing with personal and national assimilation in Israeli art. The element of the mountain appears in traditional Japanese works that emphasize different perspectives of the mountain, alongside Israeli artworks which express the attraction to the mountain. The exhibition also gives space to young artists who respond to the work using diverse visual means and in defiant and different ways.

On Friday January 19, 2024, "Japanese sushi girls" (Kaori, Naomi A., Yuri, Mami Ari and Naomi S.) gathered to prepare sushi for the soldiers at the front. For two hours, they put rice on seaweed, peeled avocado, added carrot, omelet, and cucumber, rolled seaweed, and cut it. One packs it and another writes greetings to the soldiers. The act is not intended to satisfy the hungry but to pamper them, to provide food that they are skilled in preparing, and which they usually prepare for their families. While preparing the sushi, there was a harmony and order among them that charmed me. The coordinated actions, the delicate acrobatics of fingers moving gracefully on seaweed, and the understanding that prevailed between them in silence, laughter, and talk, were beautiful to me, as were the ironed aprons and the Japanese handkerchiefs they wore on their heads. Six women, six life stories full of decisions, fears and hopes. Among the decisions is the decision to live in Israel, far from their parents, their families, their people, and their country. They decided to tie their fate to the fate of my people and show solidarity at this difficult and complex time. Their actions draw together a thread of grace, kindness, and magic.

At the age of 17, Michael Sela (born 1998) decided to become the best photographer in the world. Equipped with a Pentax film camera his father gave him, he embarks on a journey for the sole purpose of photography. This journey also takes place in Japan (2019), which becomes his home. Sela's photographs express sentimental and magical emotions at the same time. His photographs are a means of connecting with a different, distant Japanese reality, but which are also very intimate. He knows most of the people he photographs, and for him photography is capturing small moments in their midst. The people closest to him are photographed in a given space, because a photograph is a sliver of space as it is a sliver of time.

"Japanese Design Today "100” was first developed in 2004 and then toured the world for the following decade. Now we present the third edition of the exhibition, which again brings together superlative examples of Japanese design from a present-day perspective. The exhibition is organized according to thirteen categories among them - furniture, electronics, health, communication, daily life, tableware and cooking, transportation, architecture. The exhibition includes approximately 100 items, most of which are products released after 2000, but it also includes several masterpieces from earlier times in which we can trace the roots of contemporary Japanese design. From objects such as consumer products to intangible systems and services, the designs we use in our daily lives speak volumes about the evolution of our lifestyles and society.

The "Duos" exhibition connects between traditional Japanese woodblock print artists and contemporary Japanese and Israeli artists. The first duo, Hiroshige X Tabaimo, is a connection between one of the greatest 19th century print artists, Utagawa Hiroshige, and the contemporary video artist Tabaimo. The second duo, Kuniyoshi X Kuperman, is a connection between the woodblock print artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi and the Israeli painter Ruven Kuperman. The connecting point of another duo, Hokusai X Balaban, is the aesthetics of images of warriors with a special emphasis on movement, and these are depicted in the warrior books of the artist Katsushika Hokusai and translated to the unique and refined language of the artist Yael Balaban.

Earth, water, wind, fire... and space are the elements that make up the entire universe. They are part of an ancient doctrine that used them as a means of solving problems, and from that time they have been an inseparable part of a variety of disciplines - philosophy, art, medicine, astrology and even politics. The connection between the elements emphasizes the basic concept that they nurture each other and that every element in our world is mutually dependent on another and does not exist separately. This exhibition seeks to illuminate all five elements in the light of art and to present the interrelationships between them through the works shown.

The exhibition "Time Tunnel - Japan and the Jews" marks 70 years of diplomatic relations between Japan and Israel. The exhibition focuses on the meeting point between Japan and the Jews through works of art by Japanese artists that relate to the Jewish narrative of rescue and extermination. The rescue story is based on the humane gesture of the Japanese Vice-Consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, who, in the summer of 1940, issued over two thousand visas to Japan. In this way, Sugihara saved more than six thousand Jews. Alongside the video installation by SHIMURAbros, rare photographs from 1941 of the Tampei Photography Group are displayed, including photographs of the refugees who came to Japan.

Dani Karavan |1930-2021| translated his artistic language without losing his roots and created a dialogue between his works and the Japanese place and experience. Three central works, in terms of their scope and level of conservation, are located along the length of Japan, on three different islands: On the northern island of Hokkaido, the "The Way to the Hidden Garden" is located in a sculpture forest on the outskirts of Sapporo; on the main island of Honshu, in Nara Prefecture, is the Murou Art Forest; and on the southern island of Kyushu, where the work "Bereshit" stands. This exhibition focuses on these three works.
Dani Karavan‘s environmental art includes the elements of experience, reaction, and the connection between it and the visitor. The visitor is not an external factor, a stranger, but must move within the work to experience it, and the work is not complete without the visitor. Already at first glance, the works invite the visitor to discover them from within. The three works are "site-specific", and any attempt to move them elsewhere will remove them from their unique context to the local history and geography. In the three works there is a discourse between the parts of the work, near or far, and they are a complete work only taken together as a whole.

Yasuhiro Suzuki | b. 1979 | is an artist designer. Suzuki does not meet the conventional definition of a designer because his creations are not limited only to aesthetic and useful products. His designs improve our quality of life, thanks to the encounter between them and the environment in which we live.
In a scientific approach interwoven with fine humor, Suzuki expresses his inner world and the way he looks at and experiences the world and the environment. Everyday experiences of joy and fear take center stage in his works. With great talent, Suzuki disassociates objects from their daily and familiar use, and gives them a new identity. Thus, cabbage leaves turn into a bowl, a gun shoots eyedrops and a tree’s leaves are replaced with eyes. Suzuki blurs the line between humans and nature – nature appears in the human body and Man is assimilated into nature.
Illustrations, seemingly simple, are an integral part of his creative process, and through them Suzuki reveals the mechanism of his thoughts. The explanations that accompany the exhibits were written by the artist. The exhibition makes accessible product, illustration, and text, the three dimensions in which the artist deals.