“Spectacular Failure,” CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo’s annual group exhibition, examines the significant role that failure – losing, coming up short – has played in Israeli art over the past fifty years. At a time when we are bombarded with slogans of 'Total Victory’ and ‘Together We Will Win,’ this preoccupation has become especially poignant. The participating artists don’t abandon the playground-like dichotomy of winning and losing, but rather undermine it from within, by identifying with the losing side.

The exhibition brings together works by artists who are active today, while also tracing threads into the past. What unites them is their engagement with failure as it cuts across culture: from personal disappointments and social blunders to exposing the absurdities of military ethos. Across the board, failure operates not only as theme, but also as strategy: artists take on the role of the loser, adopt the ‘unsuccessful’ aesthetic of the makeshift and the provisional, and wield dark humor – all as a way to puncture official narratives and lay bare our reality in all of its uncomfortableness.

Participating artists: Ilona Balaga, Eden Bannet, Benni Efrat, Yael Frank, Shir Handelsman, Roy Menachem Markovich, Efrat Natan, Eran Nave, Buky Schwartz, Yael Sloma, Malki Tesler, Gal Weinstein, Uri Weinstein.

“Spectacular Failure” is curated by Tamar Margalit.

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“Spectacular Failure”, 2025

View of the exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo; artworks by Gal Weinstein (left), Shir Handelsman (center, floor), Yael Sloma (right). Photo: Elad Sarig

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“Spectacular Failure”, 2025

View of the exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo; artworks by Efrat Natan (left), Buky Schwartz (right). Photo: Elad Sarig

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“Spectacular Failure”, 2025

View of the exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo; artworks by Ilona Balaga (left), Eden Bannet (foreground), Malki Tesler (right). Photo: Elad Sarig

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“Spectacular Failure”, 2025

View of the exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo; artworks by Benni Efrat (left), Uri Weinstein (right). Photo: Elad Sarig

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Roy Menachem Markovich

Miniments, 2018-2025

Mixed media, variable dimensions

Courtesy of the artist

Photo: Elad Sarig

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Eran Nave

The Axis Reversed, 2013

Video still

Courtesy of the artist

Photo: Elad Sarig

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Yael Frank

Seven Attempts to Bring Back the Sun, 2007

Video still

Courtesy of the artist