Barak Ravitz | Curtain Call

 In "Curtain Call," Barak Ravitz's new exhibition at the Dvir Gallery, he created a sensation of disruption and temptation, fantasy, elegance, and dash of humor.The name of the exhibition, referencing the deep bow by a cast to the audience at the end of a performance, frames it, despite the art being static. As an action, this leads to viewing the art as performative. Beyond duration, the exhibition is conscious of the power relationship between it and the viewer, being a pause from reality and the essential need to be brilliant and capture the audience's heart.

 

Two deconstructed cardboard boxes bearing the company name “Kitov” also create a sort of diptych. The boxes are attached to what seems like metal supports but are made of MDF. They bear the kosher stamp of the Jerusalem Ultraorthodox Court and a notice stating that the products are free of worms and insects. The title, Twice as Good, touches upon the commercialization of religious concepts. They have an interesting connection to Micha Ullmann’s sculptures of “Secular Books” (2000). He referred to religious books through secular books, in a razor-sharp encounter between an abstract idea and the earth, between spiritual and material. Ravitz, in an absurd, ironic, sad work, speaks of the instrumentalization of the spiritual. The name of the company refers to the Third Day of Creation which has become a brand name (the day on which “God saw that this was good” twice).

 

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