Back to Basics

It was time to build. In June 2023, the members of the 'Binyamin' Gallery assembled for the "Eroding the Foundations" exhibition for which they wrote: "We have decided that the time has come to demolish the gallery. Not just because of the political situation, but also because of who we are – individuals who have chosen to act together. Because we need to improve. Or to change. To that end, we need initially to excavate the foundations, to understand what needs strengthening, what to change and what to simply dismantle". Two years have passed since then, and it seems as if nothing has improved. On the contrary – the darkness has only intensified. It began in October of that year, with rivers of blood. An intolerable reality came face to face with a polarized society. What followed were profound political despair, systems collapsing, shaky moral ground. It seemed as if reality itself, and not just individuals, chose to self-destruct. Any foundation to which it seemed one might hold on to, crumbled. And yet, it was specifically out of this fracture that a call arose to return to basics. To build. Even when trust is undermined, even when the heart is still closed. Even when optimism is flawed – there is a stubborn, almost child-like need to start assembling something. However small. However precarious. The main thing is to begin anew. Conversations between the 'Binyamin' members produced practical ideas as to how build a basic structure, with scaffolding. But there was also skepticism. Someone mentioned the Tower of Babel that was built out of tremendous cooperation and collapsed when the common language was lost. Is that what we have come to? We don't want to turn back. Nor to restore that which existed previously. But rather, to examine the possibility of building something new. Without pretensions. Without order or hierarchy. Out of attentiveness. To grow, at least one thing, on the rough stony ground – in the hope that on this single basic foundational element, at least one thing more might grow and be built.