Hope Against Hope at DVIR Gallery

Artists: Etti Abergel, Aysha E Arar, Miroslaw Balka, Douglas Gordon, Shai-Lee Horodi, Barak Ravitz, Ariel Schlesinger, Pavel Wolberg, Noa Zait, Adel Abdessemed, Miroslaw Balka, Latifa Echakhch, Douglas Gordon, Jonathan Monk, Sarah Ortmeyer, Miri Segal, Lawrence Weiner, Pavel Wolberg

Exhibition title: Hope Against Hope

Venue: Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel, Brussels, Belgium

Date: September 6 – October 20, 2018

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Dvir Gallery

‘Hope Against Hope / Contre Tout Espoir’, dedicated to the memoirs of Nadejda Mandelstam (b. Russia, 1899 – 1980).

‘Hope Against Hope’ was first published in English in 1970 and ‘Hope Abandoned’ in 1972.

A masterpiece of prose as well as a model of biographical narrative and social analysis, the two books were key chapters in the new bible that the twentieth century had written for us, a vital eyewitness account of Stalin’s Soviet Union and one of the greatest testaments to the value of literature and imaginative freedom. It is also a profound inspiration – a love story that relates the daily struggle to keep both love and art alive in the most desperate circumstances.

Nadezhda Mandelstam’s seemingly artless recollections offer so much more than descriptions of unpredictable terror. It is a world in which poetry is memorable, and the ability to learn poems by heart makes them easy to transmit.

Hope Against Hope, 2018, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv

Miroslaw Balka, Bonfire, 2013-2015, variable dimensions, unique, wood, 10 blinking electric bulbs

Aysha E Arar, Plectrum, 2018, 180 x 510 cm, unique, spray on cotton fabric

Ariel Schlesinger, Tokio story, 2010-2018, 238 x 251 x 127 cm, unique, found Japanese gate

Barak Ravitz, Knitter, 2016, 13 x 35 x 177 cm, edition of 3 + 1 AP, cotton thread, wood, polyurethane rubber

Barak Ravitz, Knitter (detail), 2016, 13 x 35 x 177 cm, edition of 3 + 1 AP, cotton thread, wood, polyurethane rubber

Etti Abergel, Early days, 2018, variable dimensions, unique, mixed media

Etti Abergel, Early days (detail), 2018, variable dimensions, unique, mixed media

Miroslaw Balka, 4 x 22 x 1018, 2010, 4 x 22 x 1018 cm, unique, steel

Miroslaw Balka, 4 x 22 x 1018 (detail), 2010, 4 x 22 x 1018 cm, unique, steel

Shai-Lee Horodi, Untitled (screenshot), 2016, 2min, unique, video

Noa Zait, Vile lust and shameful blasphemy II, 2018, 118 x 87 cm, edition of 3 + 1 AP, inkjet prints, glue, masking tape

Noa Zait, Vile lust and shameful blasphemy V, 2018, 76 x 103 cm, edition of 3 + 1 AP, inkjet prints, glue, masking tape

Pavel Wolberg, Women with wings (Kiev), 2014, 53.5 x 41 x 2 cm, edition of 3 + 2 AP, inkjet print

Pavel Wolberg, Bears (Kiev), 2014, 53.5 x 41 x 2 cm, edition of 3 + 2 AP, inkjet print

Pavel Wolberg, Old man in the mirror (Kosovo), 2009, 44 x 38 x 2 cm, edition of 3 + 2 AP, inkjet print

Pavel Wolberg, Trees reflected on water (Jantuha), 2015, 54 x 46 x 2 cm, edition of 3 + 2 AP, inkjet print

Pavel Wolberg, White clouds (Jantuha-Abkhavia), 2015, 44 x 38 x 2 cm, edition of 3 + 2 AP, inkjet print

Douglas Gordon, Molotov action, Jerusalem stone (screenshot), 2012, 4’30’’, edition of 3 + 2 AP, HD video loop

Lawrence Weiner, Anything added to something, 2009, variable dimensions, unique, language + materials referred to

Hope Against Hope, 2018, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Jonathan Monk, All the possible ways of lighting eight candles, 2012, 61.3 x 85.7 cm (each frame), unique, 20 framed prints, candels, wine bottles

Hope Against Hope, 2018, exhibition view, Dvir Gallery, Brussels

Adel Abdessemed, Tins, Ich bin allein, 2017-2018, 115 x 85 x 3.5 cm, unique, recycled printed metal

Miroslaw Balka, 50 x 40 x 27, 2018, 50 x 40 x 27 cm, unique, concrete, brick, mirror

Latifa Echakhch, Sans titre (jardin exotique), 2018, 200 x 150 cm, unique, acrylic and concrete paint on canvas, aluminum and wooden frame

Pavel Wolberg, Abkhazia, 2018, 38 x 33 cm, edition of 3 + 2 AP, inkjet print

Sarah Ortmeyer, SAD EIS (5, SAD EIS SERIES), 2012, 140 x 60 x 60 cm, unique, resin and paint

Sarah Ortmeyer, SAD EIS (4, SAD EIS SERIES), 2012, 140 x 60 x 60 cm, unique, resin and paint

Douglas Gordon, Independent from August 12, 1999, 2011, 53.8 x 71.8 cm, edition of 24 + 6 AP, handmade offset lithograph on igepa archival paper

Douglas Gordon, Mail from August 12, 1999, 2011, 53.8 x 62.6 cm, edition of 24 + 6 AP, handmade offset lithograph on igepa archival paper

Douglas Gordon, Times from August 12, 1999, 2011, 53.8 x 71 cm, edition of 24 + 6 AP, handmade offset lithograph on igepa archival paper

Douglas Gordon, Record from August 12, 1999, 2011, 53.7 x 73.7 cm, edition of 24 + 6 AP, handmade offset lithograph on igepa archival paper

Douglas Gordon, Sun from August 12, 1999, 2011, 53.8 x 70.3 cm, edition of 24 + 6 AP, handmade offset lithograph on igepa archival paper

Douglas Gordon, Guardian from August 12, 1999, 2011, 53.8 x 70.7 cm, edition of 24 + 6 AP, handmade offset lithograph on igepa archival paper

Miri Segal, Light Falling, 2012, 20 x 70 cm, edition of 6 + 2 AP, perspex mirror, digital print, spotlight