Dear members of the Director’s Circle,

With this letter, we start our journey together. It will transform your experience in the field of contemporary art, expanding your knowledge and awareness of all the different “animals” and their roles in the various “art ecosystems”.

SALON 1 WITH ALMA LUXEMBOURG

On August 11 we will hold our first salon (the gallerist) with Alma Luxembourg at her home in Tel Aviv and at the Bauhaus Foundation. A second generation protagonist in the field (her mother Daniella is a veteran in the field) Alma worked for dealers, auction houses and now runs Luxembourg + Co., a gallery with spaces in London and New York.

WALKTALK LISBON AND LOS ANGELES

Dafna and I also launched WalkTalk Los Angeles on November 12-15. With the motto “Larger than Life,” this is our most ambitious destination, after Milan, New York, Athens, Copenhagen, Vienna, Madrid, Cologne-Düsseldorf, and Lisbon. If you are interested, contact Dafna (dafna@dafna-id.com). Speaking of Lisbon, we are scheduling two events for you related to WalkTalk Lisbon: a zoom lecture with me on August 19 at 19:00 about artists Joana Vasconcelos, Leonor Antunes and Ernesto Neto, whose work we will see in Lisbon (Joana and Leonor will also be present); on September 2 at 19:00 a studio visit with Liora Kaplan who produced her latest body of work with marble in Portugal.

SALON 2 WITH RIVKA SAKER

Last but not least on September 10 we will hold our second Salon (the auctioneer) with Rivka Saker, who is a long-time board member at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo, the founder and chair at Artis – a philanthropic organization supporting artists from Israel –, a board member at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin and at the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv; last but not least she co-founded Sotheby’s Israel of which she is Chairman. Rivka will host us on the rooftop of her apartment in Tel Aviv – she divides her time between Tel Aviv and New York – and she will share her vision on art, on the state of Israeli art in these turbulent times, on the market and on philanthropy from a global perspective.

AT CCA TEL AVIV-YAFO

In the meantime at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo we have two projects especially conceived for and produced by CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo; in the Ground Floor Gallery Italian artist Margherita Moscardini created abstract works ruminating on the notion of abstraction related to sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron governed by the status quo; in the First Floor Gallery and in a private apartment in front of the Center Israeli artist Tal Engelstein created a unique installation featuring Israeli coins, voices broadcasted live from site all over Israel and the West Bank and smells from kitchen of the Carmel Market. Both projects are so unique and if you want to come and have a private tour you should write to me; they will run until August 31.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS WHILE TRAVELING

As the summer approaches I have a few recommendations for you: the first one is an exhibition of works by Israeli artist Naama Tsabar (we showed her in 2018) juxtaposed to works by post war art giant Joseph Beuys at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin; the second one is “If Women Rule the World” a presentation of female artists at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (the title is taken from a work by Yael Bartana); the third one is the inaugural exhibition at the Campus, a collaborative space by New York galleries Bortolami, James Cohan, kaufmann repetto, Anton Kern, Andrew Kreps, and kurimanzutto in Hudson NY, a few hours from New York.

MY READING / WATCHING RECOMMENDATIONS

As many of you are going, or went, to the Venice Biennale, I would like to recommend two videos and one interview related to Claire Fontaine the “collective artist” (you will discover why I put quotation marks!) whose work Foreigners Everywhere gives the title to the entire Biennale. One video (click HERE) is an old interview at Art Basel Miami Beach; the other is a recent video (click HERE) is about Claire Fontaine’s collaboration with the fashion house Dior for one of their runaways. Then, if you want to discover more, you can read an interview (click HERE) and you can ask me since I have worked with them on several occasions and I am very familiar with their practice. I will be happy to share my knowledge with you.

If you have any questions or thoughts please feel free to share them with me and I hope to see you with Alma, at CCA (I will be in Italy from August 12 to September 1), at the two Lisbon-related lectures or directly in Lisbon!

Nicola

1

The building on Bialik Street hosting Alma Luxembourg’s home and the Bauhaus Foundation

2

A work by Norwegian Los Angeles-based artist and photographer Torbjørn Rødland

3

Rivka Saker being honored with Artis at the Jewish Museum’s 34th Annual Purim Ball in 2020

4

A view of Naama Tsabar’s exhibition at theHamburger Bahnhof in Berlin

5

A view of Claire Fonteine’s work Foreigners Everywhere at the Venice Biennale