“Daily Ritual” – the new exhibition that will open in the Contemporary Art Gallery at the Ein Dor Museum, on Friday, January 12, 2024, will deal with connections between past and present, archeology and local Israeli contemporary art. A new interpretation and different angles to works that symbolize only the thin line that separates worship ceremonies from actions in the daily routine of each one of us – everyday life.

The combination of the exhibition’s curators, Tamar Shooval – director and curator of the museum and doctoral student in archeology at the University of Haifa, and curator Adi Nissenbaum – who brings her own modern interpretive touch, merges two extremes that turn out to be possible: on the one hand, the mezuzah and the tefillin, but this time they involve feminist secular texts written in the spirit of the times and referring to events passing through the country .

Figurine paintings inspired by ancient figurines in modern clothing engaged in contemporary daily activities, a churn for making butter that turns under the hands of the kneader into an almost sacred repetitious-meditative ritual. Ancient touches of the past that are presented alongside daily “rituals” in our lives – rituals of routine: from drawing a nature journal, cooking, covering the head and makeup to hanging laundry on a rope; delicate embroideries of simple daily actions in the craft of thought on lace napkins, seemingly simple daily rituals next to archaeological objects that have been transformed from worship rituals to play – all these are just some of the performances that allow different angles of observation for the basic actions. An exhibition that is all about creating a new reality in which the past and the present exist in one and possible subordination.

Tamar Shooval, director and curator of the Ein Dor Museum: “The exhibition offers a rare combination of an archaeological, historical and cultural experience. An extraordinary opportunity to see and experience contemporary Israeli art precisely in the period we are in and connect to a spectrum of emotions through ancient rituals that receive a new interpretation”.

Adi Nissenbaum, curator and initiator of the exhibition: “These days when habits and daily rituals take on a different meaning, it was important for me to bring to visual expression the connection between religious rituals and the rituals of life: washing, cleaning, grooming. The original performances in the exhibition bring a seemingly ancient breeze that turns out to accompany each of us in our daily routine”.

The exhibition will be open to visitors between the dates: 12.1.24- October 2024 on Sunday-Thursday between 10:00-15:00, Friday 10:00-14:00, Saturday 10:00-16:00.