Guest Post By Salomé Lindenberg
We are oh so lucky to have Salomé has a contributor for the Bubblist. Salomé is a young Belgian woman,graduated in contemporary art history and in cultural management. She interned and worked for some of the most prestigious institutions in the art world such as Christie’s, and now she is digging into the Tel Aviv art scene with a brand new fresh look.
I was already in Tel Aviv for three months when I met Stephan Goldrajch. The artist is currently living in Brussels, but I had to move to Tel Aviv to eventually meet him, and discover his work. We met thanks to a common friend, who indicated me that he was coming to the white city with his girlfriend and their one year-old’s daughter for a vacation.
Goldrajch was born in Israel, and was only five years old when he moved with his parents to Belgium. Therefore, he grew up and studied in Brussels. Later, he decided to follow a year Master at the ‘Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design’ in Israel.
We met up on the Corner of Ben Yehuda – Frishman at the Cafe Mersand. We ordered a Goldstar and started to talk about everything, mostly about Art. During the conversation, I noticed that Stephan was deeply passionate about myths and legends, old testament stories and the oral traditions that followed. I didn’t know anything about his work before, I just had quickly googled up few of his pieces. During that meeting, he told me all about his performance at the Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn, which was going to take place in April. He was still working on it. I learned that he had graduated from “La Cambre“, one of the main Arts and Design school in Belgium, in Sculpture, and that he was a transdisciplinary artist. Indeed, in his work he uses as much textiles, drawings, tales than body movement. He loves to interact with the audience, so his performances take an important place in his work. Goldrajch’s approach is to “create bonds, to generate relations”.This is also why one of his favorite medium is the embroidery.
The artist often uses wool crochet to make his mysterious masks, and uses them to create a new world of interpretations. Through those, we can feel the tradition of the artisan who represents the old story into the contemporary world.
Sadly, I was not able to go to NYC last April to have a look at his performance in Brooklyn for CATCH61, at the Invisible Art Dog Center. I had to discover it later on Vimeo. Nevertheless, I was astonished by the show even through an amateur video. In this show, which reinterpreted the story of David & Goliath, juggling between body movement, textile sculpture and crocheted masks, Goldrajch displayed with a serious dose of humour the powerful biblical story. One of his strengths is to make the audience participate. I felt under the spell.
Few days after watching that video, I was wandering in Tel Aviv when I decided to randomly stop by the Chelouche Art Gallery. The space was showing the Nehushtan exhibition curated by Uri Gershuni. As I was examining each of the works, I felt in love with one piece, and took a picture of it, only to later found out it was a piece made by Goldrajch. An objective “coup de coeur”, that brought me to decide to write about him.
Goldrajch is a positive and passionate character, it was a pleasure to discover his work. I was never truly interested by textile in art before, but his work made me changed my mind. He is now working on a new set of performances and pieces for the Tanzmesse fair that will take place in Dusseldörf this August, and and I hope I will be lucky enough to see his work in real this time! I also heard that he will be back in New York and Tel Aviv for new projects really soon.
I hope that I have given you the will to discover his work. If it is the case, do not wait any longer, here comes the link to his Facebook page, where you can find videos from his performances, as well as a link to his website.
Enjoy!
The Bubblist 