The Project Room: What Was and What Will Be | Tsibi Geva

What is the White City 009

Exhibition Opening: 15.10.2024, Tuesday, 20:00
Exhibition Closing: 25.1.2025

In the ninth exhibition at the Project Room, artist Tsibi Geva revisits his proposal for the Israeli Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003—a proposal that was ultimately not accepted.  At that time the modernist pavilion, designed in 1952 by architect Ze’ev Rechter, was rumored to be slated for demolition, in preparation for renovations and updates to suit modern display needs.

Amid the turbulent reality of 2003 (suicide bombings in Israel, Al-Qaeda attacks, the Second Gulf War, and worldwide condemnations of Israel), Geva found no meaning in simply hanging artworks inside the pavilion. Instead, he proposed, as a "total act," to stage an attack on the pavilion itself.

Geva aims to highlight a mechanism of destruction and construction as a central element of both Israeli and perhaps even Jewish identity—from the biblical stories of the Flood and the Tower of Babel to the ruins of wars, suggesting a form of "reboot" that also expresses a wish for healing.

The critical focus on the destruction of the "home" (or pavilion) reveals the violence of the moment. But has that moment truly passed? A heap of ruins as a metaphor for self-inflicted, almost suicidal damage invites reflective contemplation on the wound. Within this rubble, Geva seeks to merge the "self and the other into one inseparable blend"; to dissolve the dichotomy of the conflict—where Israelis and Palestinians are seen as good versus bad—and instead present a human situation where all sides are victims of the tragic narrative.

Thus, the Israeli Pavilion in Venice, which also serves as a metaphor for the Zionist ethos associated with modernist architecture and nation-building, transforms with its imagined destruction into a symbol of the increasingly blurred and fragmented Israeli identity, which is in search of a new form.

The choice to present a 20-year-old proposal in the Project Room, showcasing the ruins of the modernist building—which itself is a metaphor for the Zionist vision—echoes the daily reality of our lives in the land today, amid endless war and destruction. It also indirectly reflects the ongoing history of demolition, erasure, and reboot linked to the Israeli construction project and the preservation and renewal efforts in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. In times of struggle over the nation's identity, Geva's proposal seems more relevant than ever.

The imagined breaking point and reboot—whether utopian or dystopian—requires rethinking. At the heart of the discussion lies the question: What, if anything, will come "after"? What vision can emerge from among the ruins?

The Project Room

The exhibition "What Was and What Will Be" is the ninth to be presented in the Project Room at the Liebling Haus. This space invites creators to actively engage in a critical exploration of the question "What is the White City?" as part of a multidisciplinary, alternative, collaborative, and ongoing research initiative that views the White City as a platform for contemporary discussions on preservation, urbanism, identity, and culture in the city. The Project Room serves as an extension of the permanent exhibition at the Liebling Haus, which unfolds the story of the White City as one among many narratives, serving as a starting point for an evolving story. This space invites the creative and scholarly public to address current local and global issues, offering diverse perspectives and alternative narratives. The works presented in the Project Room are selected through a "call for proposals" process.