Yaara Zach – Metal Tongue | Exhibition at the Bezalel Gallery of Contemporary Art

Yaara Zach, born in Kiryat Haim (1984), holds a BFA and MFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. Zach creates spaces that activate the body, even in the absence of human presence. In this exhibition the human body—or any distinct representation of it—does not directly appear yet its presence is felt within the installation, within the ‘system’ as Zach refers to it, which is ‘a sort of body.’ Bodily movements are etched into this system, or to be precise, the system itself becomes a platform for raw and uncontrolled actions that may (also) be aggressive. The ‘system’ operates in two modes: both as a static sculptural space (except for areas where a bag containing liquid ink drips onto the material), and as a space with potential for performative activity, continuing the sculptural action. This activity takes place in the body but also at its margins, in what is left of it, and in what it leaves behind: dirt, scratches, remnants, echoes.

Despite the minimalistic sculptural line that characterizes Zach’s work, this exhibition offers neither a sterile installation nor sleek aesthetics. Quite the opposite: Zach subverts the familiar visual syntax of her previous works and adopts a more material, raw, and instinctive language, impacted by current events. Solid and liquid materials meet and tussle; signs are etched, stamped, smeared. The whole setting seems to bear the remembrance of an injury, or treatment of an injury. The space is charged with the aura of a post-catastrophic state: a moment after a violent incident, and a moment before rehabilitation. Maybe a catastrophe for the human body, or maybe a disaster linked to property or an incident that struck in a private or collective space. Be that as it may, there is no absolute and hermetic image of reality.

The exhibition is an important turning point in Zach’s artistic practice, and expands the questions that have occupied her as a creative: How is the body activated? And by who? What happens when control mechanisms are undermined? In this exhibition the artistic act calls for boundary-breaking and is not performed by the artist alone. Zach invites, and perhaps even coerces, the participation of the viewer within the framework of live performance and blurs the lines between viewer and artwork. The gallery’s upper level becomes a sort of stage that is ascended from the entrance level, and we are equipped with raw materials produced by volunteers before the exhibition. Playfulness itself, a theme in many of Zach’s works, sometimes surfaces as an echo or disruption of control mechanisms, familiar bodily language, and interpersonal, political, and material situations. In this exhibition violence is not described—it is experienced.

At a time when the local and regional political realities are saturated with ongoing violence, the material language of Yaara Zach—a well-known artist in the art scene—becomes especially charged. The wound, the fracture, the acts of repression and preservation that have characterized her work over the years, all of these do not exist in a vacuum. Viewers cannot disengage from the broader context in which this exhibition was created and is being shown: a time in which earth, walls, and bodies suffer harm at an inconceivable scale. Even if it does not address it directly, the exhibition reverberates the events taking place in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel. As such, it becomes a space of processing and of renewed observation of violence as a force that is at once material, formative, and political.

Curator: Prof. Dor Guez

September 18- November 15, 2025
Bezalel Gallery of Contemporary Art
119 Hertzel st., Tel Aviv

Exhibition opening hours:
Tuesday-Wednesday: 11:00-14:00
Thursday: 12:00-18:00
Friday-Saturday: 11:00-14:00