Ella Littwitz
Beatrice S. Kolliner Award for a Young Israeli Artist
Jury: Amitai Mendelsohn (Chair); Yaniv Shapira; Lee He Shulov

“In recent years Ella Littwitz has emerged as one of Israel’s most fascinating and multifaceted artists. Her profound research-based works usually take the form of sculptural installations in a rich array of techniques and unusual materials, both natural and artificial, and featuring readymades and objets trouvés, photography, video, and sound. Engaging with the landscape and addressing geopolitical issues, Littwitz raises fundamental questions about the boundaries of the artistic act. She researches sites that have geographic, national, and religious significance such as Qasr al-Yahud and the Dead Sea – locations encompassing mythic dimensions and current concerns.

Littwitz probes not only the meaning of her objects, but also the meaning of their relocation to the artistic space of a gallery or museum. In addition to installations featuring actual objects found in situ, such as boundary stones, metal triangles signaling minefields, barrels used to mark off shooting ranges, and painted rocks indicating walking paths, she also relates to the landscape in her precise bronze replicas of flora. In this subtle way, she touches on a key topos of 20th-century art – the readymade – and on acute questions concerning our charged region.

For her original, thoughtful work, Ella Lettwitz has been chosen to receive the Beatrice S. Kolliner Award for a Young Israeli Artist.”

Photo: Daniel Rolider / Haaretz