Beit Guvrin National Park is a national park in central Israel which encompasses the ruins of
Maresha, one of the important towns of
Judah during the time of the
First Temple, and
Beit Guvrin, an important town in the Roman era, when it was known as
Eleutheropolis. Archaeological artifacts unearthed at the site include a large Jewish cemetery, a Roman-Byzantine amphitheatre, a Byzantine church, public baths, mosaics and burial caves. But it was none of these things that we were looking for when we went to Beit Guvrin one Thursday evening back in June. We were there to see the "Human Forms" exhibition of Italian artist
Ivo Bisignano.
Bisignano, a former Vogue Italy fashion editor, chose an ancient cave which had been closed to the public for 25 years for his exhibit of wooden sculptures and video art. The southern cave, which last welcomed visitors in the 1990s, has towering limestone walls dating back to at least 500 BCE. It was used by Jews, Romans and Byzantines alternately as a home, bath, stables and burial grounds. Recently it became the temporary home of Bisignano's exhibition of eight wooden sculptures, built from wood scraps found in
Acre on the northern coast.
All eight wooden sculptures, some as tall as five feet, were created in Bisignano's Tel Aviv apartment. He initially wanted to install his works in the Negev desert but his husband, Israeli architect Alex Meitlis, suggested the caves as the perfect location for his installation.
The exhibition is based around these namesake wooden sculptures of human forms, as well as video artworks and hand-drawn animations. The sculptures, which are situated on the dusty floors of the cave, casting giant shadows behind them, create a harmonious tension between the inanimate and the human. Each of the eight "human forms" contains their own personality and identity, and form a beautiful juxtaposition with the cave's organic interiors.
Behind the wooden sculptures and projected on other walls of the cave are Bisignano's five video works, enormous screens featuring sound-free images. Apparently it took him nine hours a day for a year to make a three-minute video. The video artworks include hand-drawings of black and white crows, lyrical texts and pop art references. They too emphasise the contrast between ancient and digital.
The sculptures and video works are accompanied by texts written by leading art and creative luminaries, including Israeli-British chef Yotam Ottolenghi, who has collaborated with Bisignano and his Israeli husband on his London restaurants.
The hundreds of caves around Beit Guvrin National Park qualified for
UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2014. Now that the "Human Forms" installation has been exhibited in one UNESCO site, Bisignano is hoping to have the exhibit travel around the world, from one UNESCO World Heritage site to another. He hopes that the next stop will be
Petra, the Nabatean city in Jordan's southwestern desert.
