Locality manifests in the way we move with and around objects surrounding us. The act of wearing a piece of jewelry carries with it a personal experience of culture, society, and landscape. The exhibition Gestures of Locality offers a reading of locality through the body gestures of the maker-jewel-wearer triangle. Instead of collecting works for this exhibition, we asked the jewelers for their stories and gestures, loaded with craft and making, material and memory. The works were then passed on to wearers who encountered them for the first time. With this process, we explored the choreography of jewelry and its connection to culture and place. Are there local gestures? Or gestures of locality?

It is a challenge to define what Israeli design is (or design in Israel), yet it is clear that human condition charges objects with meaning. Gestures of making and wearing – our body memory and physical being – bring to life inanimate objects. Given the opportunity to address Israeli design, I chose to focus on locality – not necessarily in terms of local materials or style – but in the gestures provoked from certain objects allowing a sense of place. Each of us finds locality in simple daily actions which make a place or interaction familiar. A jewel is a micro-cosmos – the gestures around it can create belonging, a momentary locality.

 

Curated by Aya Bentur

Filmed by Gal Deren and edited by Oren Gerner

 

Part of the exhibition Folk Tune - Israeli Design or Design in Israel?

Head Curator: Yuval Saar, Shenkar Design Archive.