Yaara Zach: The First Year

Yaara Zach's photographs are inhabited by figures draped in blue plastic overalls standing alone among the rocks, washed out on the sea beach, seemingly lost and abandoned. Their plastic skin with tubes and strange flapping extensions turns their bodies into something uncanny, simultaneously human and alien. These bodies testify to the vulnerability of both human and more-than-human existence. “The blue figures are taken from my dreams. They are altered in the act of breathing, from body to an object and vice versa. The work evolved around the fragility of breathing, the first and last action in life. I wanted to use air as a material and give it a shape, even if it was limited in time,” comments the artist. The photographic series stems from a video of the same title where performers interact in what seems like a ritualistic ceremony. They inflate each other’s suits embodying the idea of mutual support and interconnectedness by breath. The images displayed at Artwall however, suggest feelings of isolation. The clinging plastic seems to suffocate those wrapped in it. Bodies on the beach resemble dead marine life strangled by plastic waste. Figures surrounded by sand and rocks scorched by the sun evoke the drought brought about by the climate change. They bring to mind the fragility of life and the environment in which we live. About the artist: Yaara Zach (born in 1984) lives and works in Tel Aviv. Zach is a multidisciplinary artist predominantly working in sculpture whose works revolve around the human body as a site of personal and collective memories. Her works have been showcased in exhibitions worldwide, including prominent venues such as The Israel Museum, Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Jerusalem, Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Berardo Collection Museum in Lisbon, The artists' house in Brno and others. She has received numerous awards, including the Ann and Ari Rosenblatt Prize for Visual Art in 2022, a Merit Prize from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and the Rabinovich Foundation Prize for the Arts in Tel Aviv. Curators: Zuzana Štefková, Lenka Kukurová The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the City of Prague and the Municipal District of Prague 7. The First Year project was supported by Asylum Arts at The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life, Artport Tel Aviv, Mifal HaPais Council for the Culture and Arts. Media partners of the project are Artmap, Radio 1, GoOut. photo of the exhibition at Artwall: Martin Micka