The studio – the workspace – is a private and safe space which allows freedom of expression of the inner world: feeling, drives, passions, memories, dreams, ideas and information – all of these co-exist in the "Darkroom" of our subconscious. If is an intimate mental haven, where they are suppressed and safe most of the time and sometimes leak into the conscious – the workspace.

Throughout Tel Aviv – Jaffa there are 242 shelters, intended to be used in times of war by the public. Each year the municipality offers 35 of them to resident artists, who may rent them as studios at subsidized rates for up to 6 years. The use of the shelters is allowed only during "peaceful" times.

Nowadays, 38 artists who work in various media use these shelters, some of them are sharing. The contract 'for the authorized use of public shelter' which the artist must sign, contains numerous restrictive conditions. The most significant one states that in the times of emergency the shelters must be evicted within 4 hours.

The 9 participant artists in the exhibition " Sub_space" have all worked in the shelters – some still do – and create their physical safe place, which allows the private mental safe space to exist and to produce an intimate dialog despite the limitations. Some of the works disclose the fact that they have been conceived underground; others show the safe place through the open space outside. All reveal a piece of the private space.

In times of war, the shelter reverts to its original function as a safe haven and the studio – the workspace is dismantled. The physical space is left behind, emptied, but the mental space is forever safe.

 

Participants: Dima Valershtein | Daphna Westerman | Hanna Sahar | Lital Arielly | Micha Simhon |

                     Shir Yeffet | Shahar Marcus | Sara Laviashvili | Tamar Nissim