The Czech-Israeli artist Tamara Moyzes was set to inaugurate this year's edition of the Manofim, the most significant Jerusalem festival of contemporary art, with her installation "LACTISM." The Czech Center in Tel Aviv and Czech House Jerusalem have been involved in preparing the exhibition from the outset and were partners in this year's festival edition. However, the preparations were interrupted by a terrorist attack on October 7th. The festival opening was postponed indefinitely. Nevertheless, the exhibition space was transformed under the guidance of the organizers into a place for gatherings and art therapy workshops. These workshops were primarily aimed at survivors of the attack and other Israelis who had to leave their homes and relocate to Jerusalem due to the conflict. The Czech Center in Tel Aviv and Czech House Jerusalem decided to financially support these workshops.
We discussed the entire situation directly with Tamara Moyzes.
Can you describe what the Manofim festival is, and what was your and Shlomi's role in this year's edition?
Our solo exhibition "LACTISM" was meant to kick off the gallery season at one of Jerusalem's most prestigious contemporary art spaces, The Art Cube Artists' Studios. Simultaneously, it was scheduled to open the Manofim festival, the largest and most significant regular event of this kind in Jerusalem, attracting thousands of visitors and participants each year.
We started preparing the exhibition, along with a trilingual catalog, performance, and accompanying program seven months prior to the opening date in collaboration with the Czech Center Tel Aviv.
Thanks to their support, we managed to obtain a contribution for our exhibition and accompanying program from the Anna Lindh Foundation's mobility program.
What does your installation deal with?
Lactism is a new monotheistic religion, a product of our imagination, and at the same time, it serves as a model for human relationships and social organization. It focuses on the connection between different women from around the world; its goddess mother, Lacteria, represents a society without gender differences, geopolitical, religious, or cultural boundaries. Lacteria sustains the community through an underground network called mycelium (the vegetative part of fungi consisting of roots). Shlomi and I were inspired by the fundamental role of mycelium in an ecosystem, where each fungal thread depends on the whole and serves it. In the exhibition, mycelium represents a new, feminine, boundless social structure, a matrix of kinship relations, care, and upbringing regardless of ethnicity, religion, or geographical boundaries.
How did the preparations and the entire festival get affected by the terrorist attack on October 7th?
On October 6, Honza Štern, the director of the Czech Center Tel Aviv, drove us to Jerusalem where the next day we were supposed to start installing our exhibition. However, at exactly 8:30 am, sirens woke me up. I pulled my husband and son out of bed and we ran to the second floor which, in case the apartment lacks shelter, is the most stable place during rocket attacks. This was also our first encounter with our new neighbors in our rented apartment. From the media and our friends, we understood that it wasn't a typical attack; the situation was much more serious. A curfew was imposed in Jerusalem. On the first day, we heard gunfire near our apartment. Initially, we thought it was coming from the Kalandia checkpoint, where disturbances were reported, but that lies far from where we stayed. My son and I managed to return home on a repatriation flight on October 11, while my husband flew a day later. The opening date of the Manofim festival was postponed until further notice. The Israeli Ministry of Culture announced that all planned events were canceled or postponed at least until November.
The Art Cube Artists' Studios and the festival organizers reacted swiftly to the situation. What activities are planned within the exhibition in the coming days?
Ironically, only after our return to Prague, despite the constant sirens and bombardment, our curators decided to start installing the exhibition online. Initially, Shlomi and I were utterly desperate and had legitimate questions: What role does art play in times of war? Does it even make sense to continue? At first, I felt immense frustration, but I continued installing the exhibition because of our curator Lee He, and the festival's main manager, Michal. I understood that continuing was therapeutic and crucial for them. However, once we started discussing the subsequent programs to be held in the exhibition space, focusing on intercultural dialogue and, above all, art therapy workshops for survivors of the October 7th terrorist attack (many of whom were relocated to Jerusalem for security reasons), it started to make not only human sense but also conceptual sense to me.
We completed the exhibition on November 11, and the following day, The Art Cube Artists' Studios and curator Lee He organized the opening. Within our exhibition a meeting of the local organization Sulha (Forgiveness) took place. It's an association of Jews, Arabs, Israelis, and Palestinians striving to develop a culture of coexistence—a peace project aimed at healing and reconciliation.
The most touching experience for me was seeing photos from the opening of my exhibition in Jerusalem (which I couldn't attend due to the ongoing war) because of all those amazing people who, amidst the war, showed humanity and humanism towards each other. Despite the ongoing war, they were willing to share their fears and desires to live alongside each other in peace.
That's when I said to myself that if anyone is capable of peaceful action it's those directly affected by the conflict itself, not those who have academically studied it or those who only know it through the media. It's easy to be radical if you're not afraid for the lives of your own children. It's easy to be an activist whose activism is limited to comments on social media.
What pleased me the most personally was that an Israeli-Palestinian artist and my close friend Hannan Abu Hussein also attended the vernissage. Alongside curator Lee He and festival manager Michal she's one of the twelve amazing women and personalities portrayed as the goddesses Lacteria.
