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Abstract
In this article I examine how contemporary concrete art intersects with various manifestations of concrete in Israeli culture. I first present contemporary works of art that explore the phenomenon of real-estate gluttony and the spectacular element associated with contemporary tower architecture, in which concrete is used as a defining element of the structure. I then demonstrate how, at the turn of the twenty-first century, contemporary concrete art has joined the critique of the society of spectacle that has led to the erasure of architecture’s human function – as a space at the heart of which lies the human inhabitant – in favor of its actual capital value. The real-estate gluttony echoes or continues what is identified here as the Israeli “concrete-philia,” manifested in concrete’s status as a fundamental material in the Zionist revival narrative. I discuss the meaning of concrete in regard to works of art that reflect a critical stance toward the Zionist-national concrete narrative in Israel. This discussion is followed by an examination of contemporary art that questions the meaning of concrete in its specific relation to Israeli militarism, as manifested in contexts of heroism, commemoration, and recollection. The final stage of mapping the presence of concrete in Israeli militaristic contexts, as reflected in contemporary Israeli art, presents a discussion of art works that engage with the Separation Wall, which can be regarded as Israel's most significant Brutalist concrete project of the 2000s.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 In Concrete Stones, Artists: Hannan Abu Hussein, Nikolaus Eckhard, Christoph Weber, Arkadi Zaides and Avner Pinchover. Curator: Maayan Sheleff (July 6, 2021–August 6, 2021), at the Artists’ House in Jerusalem, Israel.
2 Concrete, Bulimia, Artists: Yoram Blumenkrantz, Guy Ben Shitrit, David Goss, Sharon Glazberg, Itzhak de Lange, Ana Dan, Noam Dover and Michal Cederbaum, Raanan Harlap, Dana Yoeli, Erez Israeli, Dina Kahana Geller, Tomer Sapir, Haimi Fenical, Muhamed Kais, Shai Ratner, Li Ramon, Gali Greenspan. Curator: Tali Tamir. Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center (2014), Tel Aviv. See the exhibition page on the Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center site: www.benyaminiceramics.org/en/ceramic-galleries/past-exhibitions/2014-2/concrete-bulimia/
3 Cement, concrete, and reinforced concrete collectively form an interconnected triad of concepts, establishing a fundamental axis of meaning that underpins the cohesive mythos of the built environment. Cement functions as the foundational binding agent, undergoing a transformative process, changing from a powdery substance to a solid material when mixed with water. The subsequent stage in this evolutionary continuum is concrete, a robust composite created by amalgamating cement with aggregates like sand and gravel. Representing a resilient material, concrete serves as the structural backbone for innumerable architectural constructions. The pinnacle of this progression, reinforced concrete, enhances structural integrity by incorporating steel reinforcement. This trilateral convergence encapsulates a narrative of construction, resilience, and ingenuity, delineating an evolutionary trajectory that has profoundly shaped the modern ethos of architectural durability and innovation. The term "axis" denotes a cohesive thematic continuum weaving through the evolution and application of these materials in the construction industry. It signifies the interconnected nature of these foundational concepts and the shared mythos or ethos they contribute to the realm of architecture and urban development. This shared narrative encompasses themes such as strength, durability, adaptability, and innovation, integral to the identity and impact of cement-based materials in shaping the built environment. These materials have played a pivotal role in shaping the physical environment, influencing how societies conceptualize and construct their living spaces. In the post-World War II realm of art, this axis encapsulates a narrative of progress and modernity. Here, the utilization of these materials becomes symbolic of the human impulse to construct, establish lasting structures, and colonize spaces. It is possible to characterize this axis of meaning, or these materials, in Dungy's reference to concrete: It “can seem like the perfect material to cover up or repair the damage of the past, to build some kind of better future. And yet, the legacy it often leaves turns out to reveal even more crumbling and deterioration.” Camille Dungy in “Immaterial: Concrete Transcript” (2016), www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/articles/2022/6/immaterial-concrete-transcript; Immaterial is produced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Magnificent Noise and hosted by Camile Dungy.
4 Fiona Allen, “Introduction: Concrete,” Parallax 21, no. 3 (2015): 237–40, at 237.
5 Adrian Forty, Concrete and Culture: A Material History (London: Reaktion Books, 2012), 8. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/haifa/detail.action?docID=1127624.
6 Or Aleksandrowicz, “Kurkar, Cement, Arabs, Jews: How to Construct a Hebrew City,” Teorya U-Vikoret [Theory and Criticism] 36 (2010): 61–87, at 65 [in Hebrew].
7 I do not claim that concrete was invented for the first time in modernity (indeed, it can be traced back to the period of Ancient Rome); rather, I argue that it became an important material and component in the development of modernity, particularly after steel was incorporated into it. See alsoForty's claims regarding the relationship between concrete and modernity: Forty, Concrete and Culture, 14.
8 Allen, “Introduction: Concrete,” 239.
9 Simon Phipps, Concrete Poetry – Post-War Modernist Public Art (Tewkesbury: September Publishing, 2018).
10 Christine Mehring, “Car Culture,” Artforum 55, no. 5 (January 2017): 164–75, www.artforum.com/features/car-culture-wolf-vostells-concrete-traffic-232058/; see also Caroline Lillian Schopp, “Concrete Violence – Wolf Vostell’s Disasters of War,” Oxford Art Journal 44, no. 2 (August 2021): 307–330, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxartj/kcab014.
11 Maayan Sheleff, InConcrete Stones (Jerusalem Art Cube Artists’ Studios, 2021), www.artiststudiosjlm.org/inconcrete-stones.html
12 Christoph Weber in an interview with Gabriel Roland, in “I Dissect Concrete,” www.collectorsagenda.com/en/in-the-studio/christoph-weber.
13 Hal Foster, The Art–Architecture Complex (London: Verso, 2011), ix.
14 See Esther Zandberg's review of Foster's book: “Architecture Is Not Art. What Is She?,” Haaretz (October 30, 2013), www.haaretz.co.il/gallery/architecture/environment/2013-10-30/ty-article/.premium/0000017f-e5e0-da9b-a1ff-edefa2df0000.
15 Deyan Sudjic, The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful Shape the World (London: Penguin, 2005), 296.
16 Reinier de Graaf, “Architecture Is Now a Tool of Capital, Complicit in a Purpose Antithetical to its Social Mission,” The Architectural Review 24, no. 4 (2015), www.architectural-review.com/essays/architecture-is-now-a-tool-of-capital-complicit-in-a-purpose-antithetical-to-its-social-mission.
17 Anselm Jappe, “Can We Cure our Addiction to Concrete?,” Pavillon de l'Arsenal (May 29, 2021), www.pavillon-arsenal.com/en/signe/11989-can-we-cure-our-addiction-to-concrete.html.
18 See Stephen Parnell, “The Meanings of Concrete: Introduction,” The Journal of Architecture 20, no. 3 (2015): 371–5, at 372, doi:10.1080/13602365.2015.1046218.
19 See Judith Naeff, Precarious Imaginaries of Beirut: A City's Suspended Now (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018): 85–138.
20 Philippe Hamon, Expositions: Literature and Architecture in Nineteenth-Century France, trans. Katia Sainson-Frank and Lisa Maguire (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 58.
21 Ibid., 63.
22 For a discussion of the creation and discourse of disposability offered by Les Levine, see Corinna Kirsch, Les Levine: Disposable Art, Technology, and Media, 1964–1971 (New York: Stony Brook University, 2021), esp. 52.
23 The literary character of Joe Levy, the director of the Department of Industry, mentions in the book the promise “that by March he [Steineck] would have a new kind of brick kiln and cement factory going in Haifa.” Theodor Herzl, Old–New Land (Altneuland), trans. Lotta Levensohn (New York: Markus Weiner Publishing and the Herzl Press, 1987 [1941]) 217–18.
24 Avraham Shlonsky, “Mul ha-Yeshimon,” in Ktavim, vol. 2 (Merhavia: Sifriyat Po'alim, 1954), 228.
25 Zifzif is coarse sea sand rich in shell fragments that is used as a building material in a gravel mixture, and with cement to make mortar or concrete.
26 Also see Hanan Hever, “A Cement-Trap for Ivory!” in The Poetry of the Concrete, ed. Gania Doron Dolev (Tel Aviv: Eretz Israel Museum, 2009), 26–43, at 37–9.
27 Or Alexandrovich, “Kurkar, Melet, Aravim, Yehudim: Eych Bonim Ir Ivrit” [Kurkar, Cement, Arabs, Jews: How to Construct a Hebrew city], Teorya U-Vikoret [Theory and Criticism] 36 (Spring 2010): 61–87, at 76–7 [in Hebrew].
28 Hadas Shadar and Omri Oz “Israeli Brutalism,” Brutalist Architecture in Israel (2012) www.brutalist-architecture.org/--cegd (accessed February 20, 2021).
29 On wheelbarrow paintings by early artists such as Nachum Gutman, David Handler, Mordechai Arieli and Shraga Weil, see Gideon Ofrat, “The House that Rises and Falls,” The Warehouse of Gideon Ofrat – Text Archive, December 23, 2010, https://gideonofrat.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/%D7%94%D7%91%D7%99%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7% A7%D7%9D-%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%9C/. See for example photographs of workers with wheelbarrows from the history of the Jewish settlement in Phipps, Poetry of Cement, 76, 80, 84, as well as several examples of representations of wheelbarrows in the work of Nachum Gutman, “Outline for Painting Plasterers” in the 1950s, “Builders” 1956, in Phipps, Poetry of Cement, 199 and 204, respectively.
30 Palestine is the contested region upon which the State of Israel was established. Israelis refer to it as the Land of Israel, while Palestinians identify it as Palestine. The establishment of the State of Israel occurred within the framework of an ongoing dispute. It is crucial to emphasize that the founding of the Jewish state does not signify the obliteration of Palestinian identity or territorial claims. The deliberate use of the conjunction "Palestine/State of Israel" serves to underscore this nuanced reality. Despite the introduction of the State of Israel, the term “Palestine” retains significant relevance for the Palestinians, functioning as a pivotal element in their perception of territorial ownership and historical heritage.
31 The term "ethics in Brutalism" has a dual meaning in the area of brutalist architecture, embracing both the moral considerations underlying architectural choices and the ethical implications within a broader cultural and aesthetic context. It is clear from the ethos defined by Brutalism's initial theorists, such as Reyner Banham and Alison and Peter Smithson, that Brutalism was envisaged not just as an aesthetic movement, but also as an ethic. This firmly founded, socialist-ideas-driven ethical underpinning was expressed in the creation of Brutalist structures dedicated to council housing, socialized healthcare, municipal services, free education, and libraries. The underlying concept of Brutalism was that its users would enjoy avant-garde and uncompromising architectural forms, breaking conventional standards and contributing to a distinct socio-cultural milieu. See Reyner Banham, The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic (New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1966).
32 In England, during the era of Neo-Brutalist architecture, the choice of materials played a fundamental and intricate role in shaping the architectural style. Architects associated with the Brutalist movement, such as Le Corbusier, Alison and Peter Smithson, Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolph, and Basil Spence, exhibited various interpretations of materials and textures within their designs. The Neo-Brutalist architects, particularly the Smithsons as proponents of the New Brutalism, expressed a fascination with ordinariness and everyday life. Consequently, they favored the use of common materials in their constructions, adopting an “as found” approach. Le Corbusier, a notable figure in the Brutalist movement, advocated for béton brut, a term describing concrete with the imprint of wooden formwork. He celebrated the imperfections of texture, asserting that they added richness and humanized the architecture.
Architects like Kahn and Spence, in their Neo-Brutalist designs, combined brick and concrete, creating surfaces and elements that offered contrasting textures. Paul Rudolph introduced corrugated and bush-hammered concrete, which contributed to intriguing chiaroscuro effects in his architectural compositions. Despite the diverse approaches of these architects, the material in their buildings served dual roles as both structure and texture. The Neo-Brutalist movement marked a return to craftsmen's methods, eschewing the aesthetic of the machine prevalent in the International Style. In contrast to the smooth and precise surfaces of the International Style, Neo-Brutalist architecture embraced rough and inaccurate textures, symbolizing sincerity and truth. During the mature phase of Brutalism, predominant materials in England included brick and, especially, concrete, while wood, stone, and sheet metal were also utilized. The raw and primitive textures that characterized the movement's early stages were gradually replaced with sophisticated, meticulously shaped surfaces. See Wojciech Niebrzydowski, “From ‘As Found’ to Bush-Hammered Concrete – Material and Texture in Brutalist Architecture,” Materials Science and Engineering 471, no. 7 (2016), https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/471/7/072016.
33 Zvi Efrat, The Israeli Project: Building and Architecture 1948–1973 (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2000), 105.
34 Sharon Rothbard, Avraham Yaski: Concrete Architecture (Tel Aviv: Babel, 2007), 509 [in Hebrew].
35 Tula Amir, “Brutalism,” Atarim [Sites] 53 (2013): 12–13, at 12.
36 Ram Karmi, “An Architecture of Shadow,” Kav 3 (1965): 50–63, at 56 [In Hebrew].
37 Ibid., 56.
38 The term Sabra designates a Jew who was born in Palestine/Israel and has a thick and tough skin and a soft, sweet inside – just like the prickly pear, which is called Sabra in Hebrew.
39 Ram Karmi in conversation with Zvi Efrat in 1998. See Efrat, The Israeli Project, 107.
40 Ram Karmi, Lyric Architecture (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense, 2001), 164.
41 Ibid., 64.
42 Or Alexandrovich, “The Facade of the Building, the Appearance of the Building: Exposed Shell Technologies in Modern Architecture in Israel,” Iyunim Bitkumat Israel [Studies in Israeli and Modern Jewish Society] 31 (2019): 306–48, at 330.
43 Fenichel in an interview with Eva Eliran, January 5, 2021, not published (emphasis added).
44 Walter Benjamin, The Origins of German Tragic Drama (London: Verso, 2003), 178.
45 Andreas Huyssen, “Nostalgia for Ruins,” Grey Room 23 (Spring, 2006): 6–21, at 13.
46 Cf. ibid.
47 Amiram Haralp, “Armed Concrete: On the Israeli Defense Security Syndrome,” Moussag [Concept] 8 (1976): 12–15 [in Hebrew].
48 Efrat, The Israeli Project, 107.
49 Efrat bases this on the statements by architects such as Ram Karmi and on documents from the government planning division, which stated in 1951, for example, that the entire country is “one cement factory.” Efrat, ibid., 105.
50 Tali Tamir, Concrete, Bulimia, Weakened Strength, Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center, Tel Aviv (2014), www.benyaminiceramics.org/%D7%AA%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A7%D7%A8%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%94/%D7%AA%D7%A2%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%A8/2014-2/%D7%91%D7%98%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%91%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%94/
51 David Kasuto, “Tombstones and their Meaning in Commemoration,” in Galed, ed. Ilana Shamir (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense Press – The Public Council for the Commemoration of the Soldier, 1989). Here according to the online publication on the “Israel Fallen Soldiers” website of the Ministry of Defense: https://izkoro.mod.gov.il/Page.aspx?pid=69 [in Hebrew].
52 Other examples are the memorial statue to the 8th Brigade erected by the sculptor Yehiel Shemi at Lod airport (inaugurated in 1972); and Israel Godovich's steel division monument in Yamit (1977; relocated to Israeli territory in 1982, after the evacuation of Yamit).
53 Erez Israeli in an interview with Merav Shin Alon, May 6, 2010, Tel Aviv (unpublished).
54 See Prof. David Golinkin, “Why Do People Usually Put Stones on Gravestones,” Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies (2017), https://schechter.ac.il/article/%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%94-%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%94%D7%92%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9C%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%90%D7%91%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%9E%D7%A6%D7%91%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A7%D7%91% D7%95%D7%A8%D7%94/ [in Hebrew].
55 Neil Menussi, “Beautiful Death – The Death Wish in Western Culture,” Fellows Program (Jerusalem: Shalem Center, 2002), 7, https://nirmenussi.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/beautiful-death.pdf.
56 Ann Elias, “War and the Visual Language of Flowers: An Antipodean Perspective,” War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities 20, no. 1/2 (2008): 234–50, at 243.
57 Leviathan, 2011, 380 × 227 cm, concrete, sand and resin. Kav 16 Gallery, Tel Aviv.
58 Galia Yahav, “Necrophilia,” Timeout TLV (March 10, 2011), www.danayoeli.net/press-galia-yahav.
60 See “Memory or Oblivion,” ch. 7 in Forty, Concrete and Culture.
61 See Cristina Buta and Charles Esche, “Anti-fascism,” Third Text 33, no. 3 (2019): 431–48, doi:10.1080/09528822.2019.1663680.
62 Christoforos Marinos in an interview by Argyro Mpozoni, “‘Anti-monuments Are Not Erected to Honour “Great Men” but to Honour the Great Power Encapsulated in Small Moments’,” Medium (Novmeber 17, 2020): https://artworksfellows.medium.com/anti-monuments-are-not-erected-to-honour-great-men-but-to-honour-the-great-power-encapsulated-a96022a1e1a0.
63 Saree Makdisi, “The Architecture of Erasure,” Critical Inquiry 36, no. 3 (Spring 2010): 519–59, at 535.
64 For a description of the complex creation process and its demonstration videos, see: Brick Wall 3 by Haimi Fenichel, Part 2 in a Series by Katia Rabey (CAST, May 2019)
65 Noa Raz-Melamed, “Blocks and Openings,” Kupferman Collection, November 2014, https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mXAwCD-PDKEJ:https://kupferman-collection.co.il/gallery/%25D7%2597%25D7%25A1%25D7%2599%25D7%259E%25D7%2595%25D7%25AA-%25D7%2595%25D7%25A4%25D7%25AA%25D7%2597%25D7%2599%25D7%259D/±&cd=1&hl=iw&ct=clnk&gl=kr (accessed January 30, 2023) [in Hebrew].
66 Fenichel in a conversation with Hijo Young, May 2021, not published.
67 Tali Tamir, Ana Dan – Worthy for Living, Kibbutz Art Gallery, Tel Aviv (November 1997). Exh. text.
68 Georgia Marsh, “The White and the Black: An Interview with Christian Boltanski,” Parkett 22 (December 1989), 36; cited in Lynn Gumpert, Christian Boltanski (Paris: Flammarion, 1994), 110.
69 Anne Murray, “Amy Sands’ ‘Lace Reimagined’, How to Create Lace Patterns from Digitised Images” (July 26, 2021): https://clotmag.com/oped/amy-sands-lace-reimagined-how-to-create-lace-patterns-from-digitised-images-by-anne-murray.
70 David Goss, “Cement as Postulation in Contemporary Final,” University of Tel-Aviv (2012), 24 (unpublished paper completed for an academic course).
71 On the relationship between life and death in the context of photography, see: Michal Amit, “Photography and Death,” Gag 37 (2015): 31–42, https://library.osu.edu/projects/hebrew-lexicon/99995-files/99995031/99995031-37/99995031-37.pdf [in Hebrew].
72 Amir, “Brutalism,” 12.
73 Alexandrovich, “The Facade of the Building,” 346–7.
74 Quoted in Efrat, The Israeli Project, 112.
75 Alexandrovich gives several examples of artistic reliefs cast in bare concrete: Danny Caravan in Tel Aviv's court building (1966), Yehezkel Kimchi in Tel Aviv's Beit Hakibutz Haartzi (the National Kibbutz House) (1969), Yehiel Shemi in front of the Jerusalem Theater (1971), and in Tel Aviv's Heichal Yehuda (Yeuda Hall) Synagogue (1971). This is in addition to the monuments and memorial structures that used volume in architectural formations and were mentioned earlier in this article. See Alexandrovich, “The Facade of the Building,” 331–2, esp. notes 77–8.
76 Sara Breitberg-Semel, The Want of Matter: A Quality in Israeli Art (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1986).
77 Gideon Ofrat, “Concrete,” Gideon Ofrat's Warehouse (uploaded January 16, 2011), https://gideonofrat.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/%D7%91%D7%98%D7%95%D7%9F.
78 Amir, “Brutalism,” 12.
79 Gilbert Herbert, “Uniformity and Diversity: The Paradox of Israeli Architecture,” Mivnim [Structures] 25 (1984): 34.
80 For pictures of the Negev Brigade Monument, see: www.danikaravan.com/portfolio-item/israel-negev-monument/.
81 Katya Evan, “The Monument in the Expanded Field of Minimalism – The Case of Dani Karavan's Monument to the Negev Brigade,” in Monuments and Site-Specific Sculpture in Urban and Rural Space, ed. Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2017), 32.
82 See Eran Neuman, “The Dialectical Meaning of Form,” in Dani Karavan: Retrospective, vol. 2, ed. Mordechai Omer (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2008), 843–50.
83 Mordechai Omer, “Early and Late in Dani Karavan’s Oeuvre,” in Dani Karavan: Retrospective, vol. 1, ed. Mordechai Omer (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2008), 395–404, at 403.
84 Pierre Restany, Dani Karavan, trans. Jan Marie Clarke and Caroline Beamish (Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1992), 45.
85 Mapai (an acronym for “Labour Party of the Land of Israel”).
86 Efrat, The Israeli Project, 170.
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Nissim Gal
NISSIM GAL is a Senior Lecturer and the Head of Graduate studies at the Department of Art History, University of Haifa, Israel. He has written extensively on modern and contemporary art for academic journals, books and exhibition catalogues. He is the author of Ilana Salama Ortar: La plage tranquille (Montpellier) and The Portrait of the Artist as a Facial Design (Tel Aviv). He is the editor of The Tour of Modern Art (Tel-Aviv, forthcoming), The Beauty of Japheth in the Tents of Shem: Studies in Honour of Mordechai Omer (Tel-Aviv) and Strange Deviations Occupy the Fringe (Haifa). His articles have been published in L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui, Theatre Research International, Performance Research, The Middle East Review of International Affairs, Journal of Jewish Identities, Art Journal, Athens Journal of Humanities & Arts and others. email: [email protected], [email protected]