ART Habens Maya Gelfman
ART Habens meets
Maya Gelfman
An interview by and
, curator
, curator
Hello and thank you for having me . Whenever a young student asks for my advice , I say that there are many ways to go about being a professional artist . The academy is definitely a well compressed route to theoretical and practical basis for art-making , but it ' s certainly not the only way . It ' s like a beehive , a structure full of variables and opportunities , that might prove to be dense and even messy at times . Each one takes this challenging experience differently . In that spirit , I must say that I ' ve learned a lot being a student but some invaluable lessons weren ' t written in the curriculum at all . They had to do with standing my ground and claiming my own voice . I used my time there to absorb and experiment as much as I could . Naturally that approach didn ' t always pay off , at least immediately . More than once , my experiments ended in grand disasters and getting harsh yet constructive criticism . But It was more important for me to create something meaningful and original than to be praised . I kept pushing myself beyond fear and gradually learned to be confident in my actions . When my final project ( thesis ), in which I created a massive installation that temporarily changed the architecture of our floor , was selected to exhibit at a huge expo and than directly lead to exhibiting at the TLV Museum of Art the following year , I knew my instincts were spoton and that my determination was rewarded .
Being an artist in Israel , well ... Even though it ' s a small country it ' s a very fertile ground for creativity and inspiration . Due to the fact that it encompasses such extreme situations and heterogeneous people . It ' s a boiling cauldron in which history , cultures , ideals and conflicts are all evident and densely mixed together . It caters a fast current of transformations , geographically , architecturally and socially . In a way , this place always leaves you hungry . No matter how one might look at the situation , in a country that is exhausted by wars and busy
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