Thank you for helping the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens in our efforts to establish "YAAR", an incredable new space to experience art in Jerusalem.

YAAR the newly established Art Department and gallery space of the Jerusalem Botanical Garden (JBG) recognizes the importance and opportunities we have, to explore and connect art with issues and topics surrounding nature, sustainability, community, technology, and innovation. Yaar will focus on developing models that create added value for the relationship between these themes. Yaar will make thoughtful connections with local and international artists, curators, and cultural institutions to create a place for collaborative projects. Yaar will create its space within both the national and international art world. Yaar will also act as a research laboratory for innovative, artistic, and cultural experimentation.

YAAR’s establishment (although not yet given its name) began in 2020 during the first COVID-19 lockdown by Hannah Rendell, Executive Director - Strategic Deveklopment of the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens. The first exhibition Returning to Nature, curated by Hadas Maor presented Israeli art from private collectors that were rarely seen by the public at a time when galleries and museums were closed. Returning to Nature was made possible with the partnership of Outset Contemporary Art Fund and The Jerusalem Foundations Innovation Fund.

From this moment during the hight of the pandemic, Jerusalem Botanical Gardens promised to become a prominent and thoughtful addition to the Israeli art and culture scene by utilising our gorgeous 35 acres to inspire, present and collaborate.  These actions join a global trend in which botanical gardens around the world combine art, culture and botany.

What have been doing since the outbreak of the pandemic...

Returning to Nature (September 2020 – January 2021)

Curator: Hadas Maor Artists: Eitan Ben Moshe Yaakov Dorchin Maya Dunietz Tsibi Geva Eli Gur Arie Menashe Kadishman Dani Karavan Sigalit Landau Ella Littwitz Saher Miari Moshe Roas Yehudit Sasportas Yaara Zach Guy Zagursky

Image: Sigalit Landau, Squirting Cucumber, 2020 | Copper, iron and cement

The title of the exhibition attests to the return to the outside after a long period of closure due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, but also to a dimension of returning to nature present in the local sculptural language. In this context, the exhibition sheds light on the constant pendulum swing between works that rely on the use of defined outlines and heavy materials like iron or bronze, and works that use synthetic materials like rubber, latex or polyester as well as softened and rounded forms.

"In the absence of any other motive, beauty is a reason to live" (currently showing)

Curator: Gaby Hamburg Fhima Artist: Ayala Netzer

The works in this exhibition deal with the artist’s failure, time after time, to connect with others. Her drawings function as mediators in an intimate, gentle, and silent dialogue between herself and her subjects. Her work masks the changing cast of characters, coming and going from her life, encoding them as species in nature. The muzzled dialogue and the intimacy which Netzer so desperately craves are enabled through her creation.

Seeing the Invisible (September 2021 – Ongoing)

Curators: Hadas Maor, Tal Michael Haring Artists:  Ai Weiwei Refik Anadol Isaac Julien CBE El Anatsui Ori Gersht Mohammed Kazem Sigalit Landau Daito Manabe Sarah Meyohas Mel O’Callaghan Pamela Rosenkranz Timur Si-Qin Jakob Kudsk Steensen

Image: Sarah Meyohas, Dawn Chorus, 2021

Seeing the Invisible is an augmented reality contemporary art exhibition initiated by the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens in partnership with Outset Contemporary Art Fund and the Jerusalem Foundation Innovation Fund. The first exhibition of its kind to be developed in collaboration with botanical gardens, it opened simultaneously at twelve different gardens around the world and continues to add new garden partners. The participating gardens all present the same exhibition, but as the works are augmented into the unique surroundings and context of each garden, the exhibition is experienced differently against the backdrop of each location.

With your help - This is what we want to do next!

Art Curator and Director of Yaar

For the first time in the history of the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, an in-house Art Curator has been appointed. Gaby Hamburg Fhima will direct the activities of Yaar. Gaby has already begun her position by branding Yaar and initiating and curating Ayala Netzer’s exhibition which is currently on show.

Gaby Hamburg-Fhima holds an M. A in Art Policy and Theory from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, and a B. FA from the Department of Photography in the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. As a curator, Hamburg-Fhima has curated exhibitions in public and alternative spaces and has curated thematic and research-based exhibitions in Israel and abroad. Hamburg-Fhima’s projects deal with the interaction between art in general and photography. Her curatorial projects investigate collective consciousness and memory. Her research studies how visual images encode secrets and lies while disclosing fragments of truth. The exhibitions that she has curated and the projects in which she was involved dive into the power of art as a tool for education, empowerment, and connecting communities. Her curatorial work ties together diverse artistic media such as photography, film, textile, and performance, to weave together a shared space or narrative where silenced voices are amplified. Her work combines theory and practice and holds the promise to engage in a fruitful dialogue between topics and between local and international artists.

“Yaar” The Gallery Space

Whilst we intend on maximizing our botanical landscapes for presenting art, we also plan to create more opportunities for work that must be shown indoors. We have begun this by modestly renovating the classroom area in the Tropical Conservatory and creating a gallery space.

We plan to further renovate this area and change the doors that lead directly to the tropical conservatory into glass doors – this would create a truly breath taking and unique gallery space. In addition, we are looking to build small indoor spaces for art scattered around the garden to allow for indoor work but remain immersed within the botanical garden setting.

Artist in Residence Program

Creating a tailored and personalized program for selected local and international Artist. The selected artists will create an original body of work that will create a dialog with the garden and correspond with the research topics studied and researched in the garden and will be accompanied by the experts at the Botanical Garden. Selected artists will also receive curatorial guidance from the garden curator.

Exhibitions throughout the garden

Yaar will present 4 exhibitions annually utilising both the gallery space and the outside garden facilities. Yaar will continue to develop our project and exhibition Seeing the Invisible. The augmented reality exhibition will progress to include the relevant educational activities and branch out to more international partners. Additional major exhibitions will be factored into the exhibition schedule considering available spaces within the JBG

THANK YOU for donating to YAAR

* Donations of any amount are needed in order to help move YAAR forward - please give what you can online here to support our efforts.

*For information about how to join the Founders and Directors Circle of Yaar (annual giving of $20,000+) please be in touch with Hannah Rendell hannah@botanic.co.il