Ella Littwitz
Wadi
Haifa Museum of Art, Israel
Aug 3, 2023 – Jan 1, 2024

Wadi is a hydrological geological formation, and a term in Arabic, English and Hebrew that describes different formations of seasonal flow, associated with areas with little precipitation. However in Haifa, a wadi is also a mental state: wadis in the city are used for momentary respites from city life, for games, and for alternative community gatherings, but they also contain darkness, waste, and complex ecological systems of “wild” animals and plants that exist as a kind of parallel world to everyday life.

Wadi is an exhibition that deals with the various manifestations of this parallel world: in the way in which Wadis shape geologies of urban layers, influence infrastructural phenomena, define cultural and psychological boundaries, and form the basis for natural and human occurrences that constantly flow and blur the boundaries of cities.

The exhibition uses local phenomena and situations to participate in broader conversations about the environment, urban settlement, and the limits of humanity. To do this, the exhibition invites artists and designers to respond to the variety of situations that Wadis produce and to imagine new ecologies of coexistence between plants, animals, and humans.

Curated by Dr Dan Handel

Photo: Dor Kedmi