For six days in April, a Tel Aviv building will become a museum of young and contemporary street art, in the framework of the Pop-Up Museum TLV project. Works of about 90 artists depicting dreams, love, social media and life in Tel Aviv will adorn the walls of the building, which will be completely leveled when the project is over
In recent years we’ve witnessed the art establishment’s warming to – even adoption – of street art. What was once deemed underground and plain illegal, done in the dark of night on sketchy streets, unvalued, covered over and erased, has increasingly been absorbed into the cultural and artistic mainstream as municipal bodies and museums around the world gradually understood the power of street art. The about face in attitude includes an acknowledgement that it attracts tourists, provides employment for tour guides and artists, and it breathes life into the often staid art world.
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That understanding is behind the Pop-Up Museum TLV project, providing the framework for converting 12 apartments of a Tel Aviv building into a temp exhibit of young, contemporary, and even brash street art from April 8 to 13, coinciding with public participation. After six days of artistic creativity, the building is due to be torn down to its foundation as part of an urban renewal housing project.
“In the course of my foreign travels I encountered big buildings whose interior and exterior walls were converted into a giant canvas by various artists,” says Ya’ara Sachs, Pop-Up Museum TLV’s curator. “Artists take over hangars and warehouses with their works, and afterwards the buildings are destroyed. That seed for the idea germinated to cooperation between us and Anshei Ha’Ir (a real estate and urban renewal firm whose owners are involved in nightlife and the Tel Aviv experience). We decided to adopt it, seeking to promote young artists and leading artists who lack exposure. We’re talking about artists who generally don’t have a foothold in museums and galleries, some of them working half illegally and underground. Now they’re given legitimacy and an invitation to be creative.”
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For six days, the building will become a stage for colorful, experiential artworks, after which it will be be pulled down together with all the artworks.
“We selected four subjects – dreams, love, social media, and life in Tel Aviv,” says Sachs. “As curator, I decided that each artist can put his or her own interpretation on the walls, in the corridors, and in every open space, in keeping with the guidelines that the walls themselves must not be left white. In contrast to museums and galleries, where works are displayed against the background of white walls, with us, the entire building will turn into experiencing a parallel world.”
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Even the process of creating the exhibition, certainly the exterior walls, can be viewed for three days prior to the exhibition itself (April 2-5) at 53 Namir Road, corner of Clay 18, in Tel Aviv, when the artist Spine will paint them. “On Election Day, April 9, there will be festivities with music, merchandise on sale in a happening fun for the whole family. On the last day, there’s a destruction party with a DJ,” Sachs adds.
Sachs says that the event is only the first to blossom from the ongoing project with Anshei Ha’Ir, with three similar activities per year, all in buildings due to be torn down, whose walls are an ideal canvas for artists. Among the artists participating are Brothers of Light, Spine, Sugar Minks, THALES TAG#, Ait Greenberg, Marshal Arts, Monkeyless, Tao-B, Dima Korma, photographers Dean Avisar and Zohar Shitrit, and others.
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Feel like joining in? One apartment is set aside for DIY painting, where visitors can create their own works of art (suitable for kids and grown-ups). The audience can pick its favorite, with the winner receiving a paid commission from Anshei Ha’Ir in the new building that will go up on the same spot.
Pop-Up museum TLV, 53 Namir Road, corner of Clay 18, Tel Aviv, facebook.com/popuptlv . Open to the public
April 8 17:00-22:30, April 9 11:00-22:30, April 10-11 17:00-22:30, April 12 11:00-22:30, April 13 11:00-22:30.