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Dani Karavan - Retrospective

14.03.2008 to 01.06.2008


An exhibition of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, organised by the Berliner Festspiele in co-operation with the Nationalgalerie (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), made possible by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin, supported by the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie

Set up between 1990 and 1994, the art environment 'Passages. Homage to Walter Benjamin' integrates itself neatly into the Mediterranean landscape around the town of Portbou at the border of France and Spain - the place where Benjamin, fleeing from the National Socialists, committed suicide in 1940. With sparse but effective interventions in the shore area, the Israeli sculptor Dani Karavan (born 1930) transformed the site into an imposing memorial. Ever since his famous 'Negev Monument' near Beer Sheba in Israel, the history and specificity of a site have formed the basics of Karavan's approach to design. In his art, abstract tectonics and actual nature are condensed into an unfamiliar synthesis of body and space. With works in Italy, France, the United States, Japan, and Germany, Karavan has given new impulses to public sculpture, thus securing himself an excellent international reputation.

This exhibition, conceived largely by the artist himself, presents a number of new installations. It is the first in Germany to offer a complete survey of his artistic development.