The comfort zone of the street artist Nir Peled, or Pilfeld as he is known to many, has always been between the spaces of the volume - between the walls of the Hater club and the Diaspora House, in the areas between a lifeguard's gazebo on the beach and bulletin boards decorated with posters he designed for music festivals.
Peled's work has always corresponded with urban culture and demarcated between the borders of the city - on a wall, an album cover or a bottle of vodka.
But life, as the cliché goes, begins where comfort ends.
And in Philfeld's case, the area is Kibbutz Beit Govrin in the Lachish Valley, where starting this week he presents "Reflection of the Idea" - a new video art exhibition of his works, inside the Bell Caves in the National Park.
In other words, his new works are presented as a kind of video-art graffiti projected on rocks and cave walls, in what is considered unfamiliar territory for him - both in terms of location and in terms of working method.
"I have to say a word in favor of the Nature and Parks Authority, who invited me to do this project, because I really don't know how they trusted me and gave me a free hand," he jokes, himself acknowledging that this is a new experience for all parties involved.
"I came to a meeting with the person in charge of the area in order to make a painting on the lawns. Then we entered a cave, and there was something lovely there that I cannot explain. I am a great lover of caves, antiquities and things related to the history of the Land of Israel and Judaism. In the cave they told me about Bar Kochba and things that happened in it years ago, and suddenly I had visions. As if I had once been there. I stopped my life, studied the history of the place, went there every week, and each time I discovered a different important story. Suddenly you think about the history of this land, and you understand where are you".
From the exhibition "Reflection of the Idea", photo: Yair Moss
The new space led Peled to research the history of the area.
The result is five works that fit into the spaces of the National Garden.
These tell, accompanied by an original soundtrack by the musician Rejoyser, the story of the ancient cultures in the place.
"One work is dedicated to Bar Kochba, because he started the matter of digging in the caves and used to hide his weapons there," he says enthusiastically.
"Another work is dedicated to Samson the hero, whose story also took place in Beit Govrin. There is another work, the source of which is an inscription in ancient Greek and its translation ignites the imagination. It was written by a woman for her lover who passed away. On the wall of the cave she engraves and says that she misses him. She lets him go and sleeps with someone else, but keeps thinking about him. We connected several men, created a kind of dance of paintings with inscriptions and angels. All these guys are like the first superheroes in the world."
Did it make you want to work in the same way on buildings with historical significance in Tel Aviv, for example?
"Excellent question. These are such expensive materials, I invested in them and I would like people to see them. But the effect they have in the cave I don't think you can create anywhere else in the world. It absolutely opened a very great desire for me to make animations and continue in the stop-motion world. But When you come to a place like the Beit Govrin National Garden and you realize its size and how many periods it has gone through, you realize that it used to be just like Tel Aviv - there was a city, action, drinks, Stone Age, buildings, churches, burial caves. I don't know Where do I get this affection from, but really anything related to Judaism and history excites me."
The "Reflection of the Idea" exhibition will be open to the public starting today (Thursday), and will be displayed until the end of October on Thursdays and Saturday evenings.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us