For more than a year we have been subject to extreme and changing life situations. Overwhelmed with mixed emotions, in a state of continuous distractions, conscious and unconscious, external and internal.

The artists of Kabri Gallery, a Jewish-Arab cooperative gallery in the Galilee, found themselves as guests in exhibition spaces or as residents of a conflict line in a war zone. They continue to act together and separately, to create and deepen the presence of art in the space that surrounds us.

"Distractions" is part of a broad exhibition dealing with the kibbutz enterprise, and the participation of the artists of the cooperative gallery is their opportunity to contribute their part while challenging the threatening reality that they and the gallery have been experiencing in the war.

The artists explore their path in the artistic task and creative processes. The artist's work distracts them from an uncertain reality so that they can be focused on the world, on life and on what is unattainable.

The juxtaposition of the works in the exhibition creates a sharp transition from one piece to the next, like a cut between the personal and the collective, a kind of "distraction" from the madness and the pain, and an opportunity to let the imagination escape for a moment from the reality of uncertainty. It is a meeting between works from different worlds and places, placed side by side in close proximity. The display in the space can evoke an unusual reality, and provide an opportunity for a dialogue that reflects the spirit of the times we live in.

The works aim to draw the viewer's attention to observing a simulated, poignant reality, which seeks to make the viewer ask deep questions about what is "real" and what are the "distractions" in our reality.

Curators: Saher Miari and Ziv Sher

The Kabri Gallery is the first gallery in the kibbutz movement and has been operating since 1977. Since 2012, the gallery has been operating as the only Jewish-Arab cooperative gallery in Israel.

Gallery director: Tamar Hurvitz Livne