The LABALMA Body Project October 17, 2009

The LABALMA Body Project:

A collaboration of artists from LABA: The National Laboratory for New Jewish Culture at the 14th Street Y in New York City and Alma Home for Hebrew Culture in Tel-Aviv.

The LABALMA Body Project is an artistic exploration of the Body in relation to Jewish Text and Contemporary Culture. The LABALMA Body Exhibition features new work in various mediums including photography, video, painting, and drawing, created by artists living in New York and Tel Aviv. It asks to capture how the body can be interpreted on an axis that combines contemporary and ancient perspectives, everyday experience and the spiritual/ritual realm. It seeks to trace the role place plays in the expression (or equation) of the Body.

Participating Artists: Mor Arkadir, Alma / Shlomit Cohen, Alma / Lisa DeLoria Weinblatt, LABA / Yoav Gal, LABA / Josh Geldzahler, LABA / Hili Greenfeld, Alma / Myriam Haccoun, Alma / Masha Haccoun Pozdniakov, Alma / Amelia Morgan, LABA / Amanda Miller, LABA / Odeya Nini, LABA / Michaella (Micah) Orstav, Alma / Ruth Oppenheim, LABA / Keren Paz, Alma / Anna Pinkas, LABA / Hadara Rabinowitz, Alma / Porath Salomon, Alma / Maya Shapira, Alma / Serge Strosberg, LABA / Manju Shandler, LABA / David Tirosh, LABA / Gil Yefman, Alma / Jesse Zaritt, LABA
LABALMA Exhibition Opening Saturday, Oct 17th, 8:00 pm, followed by Y Dance party 9:30 – 12:00, FREE

*A professional full color, Hebrew-English Body Catalog of art & articles by LABA and Alma artists and staff incorporating everything from the Book of Leviticus and Alice Cooper, to images of art work and X- rays, to snippets from the Body Blog and much more accompanies this project and will be available at all events.

The Body Exhibition will run from October 17th to November 17th, 2009 at the 14th Street Y and has been co-curated by Anat Litwin of LABA and Eran Erlich of Alma. The exhibition is open Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm. The 14th Street Y is located at 344 East 14th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. (Subway: L to 1st Avenue; 4, 5, 6, Q, N, R, or W trains to Union Square).

The Body Symposium will feature a lively round table discussion addressing aspects of the Jewish Body and the Israeli Body as seen by contemporary artists through Jewish text and contemporary art. Panelists include: Stephen Hazan Arnoff, Executive Director of the 14th Street Y and Founder of LABA; Dr. Ruth Calderon, Founder and Chair of Alma Home for Hebrew Culture; Ruby Namdar, Writer, Jewish Text Teacher, and participating artists. The discussion will be followed by a presentation and conversation on the new book The Jewish Body by the author Melvin Konner and Gabe Sanders.

*Symposium to be followed by gallery reception and signing of the book The Jewish Body and LABALMA Body Catalog.

LABALMA Body Symposium, Sunday, October 18th, 4-7 pm, FREE
The symposium is part of Nextbook’s Jewish Body Week, a series of events exploring ideas in Melvin Konner’s book, The Jewish Body. For a full schedule of events, visit www.nextbook.com/JewishBody

The LABALMA collaboration is supported by a generous grant by the UJA Federation-New York. We extend special thanks to Shma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility for permission to reprint portions of the LABA faculty and artist contributions from its April 2009 issue on the Body.

For more information, visit www.labalma.org and www.14StreetY.org

Official Website: http://www.14StreetY.org