If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Featured Artists

Mirosłav Bałka – Jean-Michel Basquiat – Max Ernst – Urs Fischer – Rashid Johnson - Michael Joo – Adam McEwen – Adam Pendleton – Ugo Rondinone – Henry Taylor

Curated by Ruth Direktor, this small-scale group exhibition borrows its name from the title of Italo Calvino’s novel, published in 1979, towards the end of the Italian author’s life (1923–1985). If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler was written as an act of wandering through reading, during which the author leads us through various tales that remain unfinished, and never become a coherent plot together. It is written in the second person, making us, the readers, not only his companions on the literary journey but actual protagonists of the reading course.

Inspired by the novel, the exhibition aims to offer the viewer a journey following observation of art. The viewer (that is, you) is invited to wander along, opposite, beside and around 14 works of art created by ten artists: two lived and worked in the 20th century, the others live and work in the early 21st century. The links between the works will be revealed along the journey: questions of identity, masculinity (old and new), cruelty (between people and in relation to nature), figuring the human body and the way in which cultures nurture and enrich each other. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler invites you to wander through the gallery and compose your own story of the exhibition from layers of clues, meanings and sub-plots that the works bring forth.

Learn more at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art's (opens in a new window) website.