1. BARBARA NAHMAD
EDEN
When the world was young
June 11th
2015 - July 8th
2015
Spazio Natta, via Natta 18 - Como
Opening: June 11th
2015 at 6 p.m.
By: Zone - Visual Culture Studies, Theories and Practices of art
Catalogue’s texts: Martina Corgnati and Ambassador Avi Pazner
EDEN as the childhood place of a nation. EDEN, as a hopeful place, EDEN, as a place full of dreams, strong ideals and
conflicts, but also a place of desire. Not just for the Jews in the Diaspora, but for each population and every single human
being looking for his living space.
Barbara Nahmad’s exhibition is now in Como after Tel Aviv - where it earned a high international approval last summer-
and will continue its journey to other European cities.
EDEN is about the early Fifties in Israel and gently invites its visitors to an unprejudiced observation on a period we
know little about.
Few large-scale paintings inside an uncommon set- up; an evocative painting which gives great importance to the
softness of the forms (of the shapes), with no hyper realistic insistence.
Paintings which bring us inside a grazing light waving between dreamlike and memory and introduce us to a period of
difficult, tenacious and joyous rebirth: the man victim of centennial persecutions, chilled by the pale European skies,
now takes up the spade and the pitchfork to grow his own land. It is the time of the pioneers with their sun tanned skin
because of their work in fields, with one hand on the plough and the other one on the books.
It is also the time of the birth of the kibbutzim.
All along active both in Italy and abroad, Barbara Nahmad chooses to catch and show in her exhibition some moments
of the daily life in cities, schools, roads, kibbutz at the margins of the desert, combining them with more intimate images
of a world which actually was very young.
During the process of painting this new series, Nahmad realised that the topic she was analysing needed a change in
her own technique and style. She abandoned the enamel, which had deeply characterised most of her previous works
and removed everything she felt as “redundant” on the canvas.
And the same she did with courage, also politically talking, getting rid of every nostalgia.
Patronage: City of Como - Province of Como - Regione Lombardia - Municipality of Netanya, Israel (twin city of Como) -
Israeli National Office of Tourism, Milano - Cultural Office, Embassy of Israel in Italy, Roma
Supported by: Cultural Department, City of Como
In collaboration with Matteo Mapelli/ Galleria Antologia
Spazio Natta, Via Natta, 18 – Como
cultura@comune.como.it – tel. 031252352 – 057
orari: martedì a venerdì ore 12 - 18,30
sabato e domenica ore 12 - 19,30
ZONE - Studi di cultura visuale, Teorie e pratiche dell’arte
www.zoneculturavisuale.com
zone.culturavisuale.mi@gmail.com