מלח, מים: דמעות כחומר גלם באמנות הישראלית

Tears as Raw Material in Israeli Art

When did tears enter Israeli art, and how did they become an artistic medium? Is this a generational, social, aesthetic, or cultural question? And how have the events of October 7 transformed tears into a central material of contemporary artistic practice?

This course explores whether—and when—Israeli art shifted from an ethos of restraint to one of emotional exposure, examining how the weeping body has become a political and cultural site. We will investigate tears both as a biological, bodily substance and as a symbolic image, tracing their manifestations through a wide range of materials, including salt, water, earth, wax, glass, and more.

Longing, migration, memory, mourning, separation, war, collective trauma, the body, faith, masculinity and femininity, motherhood and fatherhood—throughout this lecture series, we will dive deep into the sea of tears and chart the emotional currents that have shaped Israeli art.

The course brings together lecturers from a range of disciplines, offering in-depth studies of significant bodies of work by Israeli artists while introducing participants to the cultural and artistic history of tears in Israel.