Inspired by the life story of Shahar Greenspan, now 23, then 12, whose life changed from one end to the other after being run over by a drunk driver, an exhibition of paintings opened this week at the Tel Hai pedestrian mall that did not leave one eye dry.
By Yakir Israel
The exhibition of paintings “Big and Small Successes” opened this week at the Municipal Gallery on the Tel Hai Pedestrian Street on behalf of the City Center-Netanya Municipality. The exhibition of the paintings caused a great deal of controversy and will be displayed in the gallery for a month. This is an exhibition of paintings inspired by the life story of Shahar Greenspan (23) who was run over in a horrific accident by a drunk driver in 2009 just before she celebrated a bat mitzvah.
Shahar was injured in the head and the doctors thought she would not survive, but Shahar fought for her life and underwent a lengthy rehabilitation. She recently published a book of poems, together with the author Zohar Aviv, which revealed her world and feelings, and now, inspired by her book of poems and at the initiative of Zohar Aviv, the artists of the Netanya Municipal Gallery have painted paintings inspired by the story of Shahar’s life. Shahar Greenspan and her family, Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor Shiri Hagoel-Sidon, Deputy Mayor Aharon Orgad, City Council member Tzipi Kepel, City Council member Tirza Greenfeld, author Zohar Aviv, Mayor Aloit Freund, gallery director and producer attended the opening. The exhibition is Lucky Kuti and of course the gallery artists.
Councilwoman Tzipi Kepel wrote: “Dawn, you are above your words. You are above and beyond your words. You are the generator of change, you bring the line, the connecting thread and sew us into one tissue during such a wounded period in Israeli socialism. You stopped the world that stood for one hour Violent, forceful. You infused your kicking silence with refined inspiration and an understanding of how miraculous and wonderful life is. “Once, please.” They’ll see you a lot more, Shahar. You just started. “
Curator of the exhibition, Adi Yekutieli, Explains the process behind the exhibition: “This is the second time that the painters of the ‘Tel Hai complex’ in Netanya are creating an exhibition with distinct social content, in galleries with an innovative concept due to their location, as they exhibit in spaces reserved for fashion stores, as an integral part of Netanya downtown. Exhibitions that take place in a public space that is not defined as a cultural complex are part of an innovative concept that developed in Netanya over a decade ago as an initiative of the city center director and following Mayor Miriam Feierberg’s policy to encourage art in the city. And the special human connection that takes place in this special exhibition is between the poet, Netanya – Shachar Greenspan and the painters of the ‘Tel Hai Group’. And a starting point for his own work.
They chose a song, a line, a title or a pair of words that they ‘brought’ into their studio. It was not intended that the book undergo an illustration process in the traditional sense of image versus text, but rather an internal clarification that would lead to meaningful discourse for sensitive and respectful human interaction. It was the reduction in Shahar’s physical abilities that created another possibility for examining the ‘distance’ that exists between people with disabilities and those who function without seeming limitations. We often find that limitations create possibilities because they require unexpected creative thinking. Those living out of limitation, difficulty and challenge cannot afford to skip sensitivities and nuances, which inevitably amplifies the experiences they go through. This meeting point is illustrated in the paintings painted in response and inspired by the texts of the young poet.
Greenspan (23), accompanied by her teacher Zohar Aviv, went through a wonderful and powerful creative process in terms of the truth that lies within it. Shahar in her direct, simple and special writing floods and evokes both the difficulty and the challenge and the optimism and hope. Precisely this combination, created a challenging range for artists who responded with their own poetics, which often surprised them with works that they created differently from their usual style. Undoubtedly a meaningful human encounter takes place the more you are with the different. We tend to converse and connect with people who are similar to us in terms of personality, background, taste, but the discourse that is fascinating, inspiring, and instructive is the one that exists with the different of us; For then we get to rethink our perceptions of life, human values, opinions, what is right and what is not, what is right, what is important and what is treated.
There is no doubt that the ‘artists of Tel Hai’ experienced a special experience of change thanks to Shahar and thanks to its writing. Now that they are being shown for the first time side by side to the general public, we hope the exhibition will continue to wander to more wide audiences. This exhibition is a special and different victory from the one we are accustomed to in the prevailing social reality today. In the face of violence, compartmentalization, aggression and prejudice, it is a victory for concepts such as empathy, sensitivity, restraint, listening and especially – desire.
“Maybe we will not have to call human behavior the word ‘victory’, because this is life as it should be.”
Photos – Ran Eliyahu