About Madaf
Madaf, a website dedicated to the art of the artist's book, features an index and a monthly magazine dedicated to local artist’s books. Madaf seeks to promote the Israeli contribution to this field in the local and international art arena. The website is divided into a comprehensive and continuously updated searchable archive that encourages browsing and research; and a monthly magazine with in-depth interviews, essays and recommendations by researchers of culture, artists, editors, and curators. Madaf was established in collaboration with Leafing magazine, Artport, and Mevo’ot: the Joav BarEl Ideas Fund to promote the local field of artist's books.
About Artport
In the belief that artists and art have a role in generating positive change in society, the Artport Contemporary Art Center was established in 2011 with the aim of being a home for artists at significant stages in their professional development. Artport works to promote and nurture contemporary art in Israel through a residency program for artists from Israel and abroad as well as through a non-profit gallery and extensive activities that include an annual artist’s book fair, exhibitions, artist meetings, professional workshops, reading groups, screenings, and more. The Artport Artist’s Book Fair was founded in the winter of 2015 and has since become a tradition that attracts thousands of visitors to a weekend of books and art. Artport was founded by Jason Arison, Chairman of the Ted Arison Family Foundation and operates with the Foundation’s full support, and that of its management: Jason Arison, Shlomit de Vries, Rachel Cohen, and Yifat Shmuelevitz.
About Mevo'ot
Mevo’ot: The Joav BarEl Ideas Foundation was established in 2021 to promote contemporary artistic actions inspired by the late Joav BarEl. The foundation works to create and promote diverse spaces for discourse about and with art, and to make BarEl’s work accessible to future generations. As part of its annual open call, Mevo’ot supports art platforms working in the virtual space, which strengthens communities in the Israeli art field, and expands its reception locally and worldwide. Mevo’ot is supported by Joel and Neta BarEl and by the extended BarEl family.
About Leafing
Leafing is an online magazine promoting a sensitive discourse about the artist's book. It was founded by Shiraz Grinbaum and Yair Meyuhas in early 2020 as a supportive space for close-looking and in-depth dialogue about the alchemy of making an artist's book and its place in the creative process and in the local art field. Dozens of artists were interviewed and an active community of readers formed around the site. Encouraged by the initial reception, its founders decided to expand the magazine’s activity and realize its vision of a comprehensive and historical digital archive dedicated to the local artist's book field. Accordingly, in early 2021, Leafing joined Artport and the Mevo’ot Foundation in establishing Madaf.
Madaf Website Team
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Vardit Gross
Founder of the Madaf website
Vardit is the curator and manager of the Artport Art Center and Residency Program, within which the Artport Artist’s Book Fair operates. She worked as an art curator in the public sphere at the Creative Time organization in New York, and has written about contemporary art in newspapers in Israel and abroad.
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Shiraz Grinbaum
Founder and chief editor of the Madaf website
Shiraz is a founding editor of Leafing magazine dedicated to the local artist book and the Madaf website. From 2021, she is the manager of Mevo’ot: The Joav BarEl Ideas Fund. She specializes in book editing and teaches photo editing, and serves as a consultant and advisor on artistic projects and for art and culture archives in various frameworks.
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Yair Meyuhas
Founder of the Madaf website
Yair is a founder of Leafing magazine dedicated to the local artist book and the Madaf website. As a visual artist responsible for photographing the artist’s books on the website index, he brings his extensive knowledge accrued from a variety of practices from the world of performance and visual theater. Yair examines the dual role of the photographic act: as a record of artistic actions in the world and as a performative action in itself. Among his many works, he specializes in photographing art archives and creating visual covers for interdisciplinary festivals.
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Mika Nachtailer
Chief producer of the Madaf website
Mika is the chief producer of the Madaf website and writes and edits content for Leafing magazine. She is completing her MA in art history at the Faculty of Arts at Tel Aviv University, specializing in contemporary art. She is the event's producer for the Genia Schreiber and Michel Kikoine University Gallery.
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Yael Moshe
Producer, Madaf website
Yael has overseen diverse projects in the field of arts and culture in various institutions, including a museum of urban culture, a contemporary art gallery, and has worked independently with artists consulting on art projects and professional development. She joined Artport in 2016 and currently manages its residency program.
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Nitzan Gaon
Social Media Manager
Nitzan oversees Artport’s social media as well as manages the gallery and gallery tours. She has managed the social media for several art institutions as well as private artists, such as Parasite and the Dina Recanati Foundation.
The Madaf team would like to thank: Yossi Balt and Anat Gilead from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Cultural Diplomacy Division for their generous support in translating the site and making it accessible to an international audience; our inspiring web designers Nomi Geiger and Amitay Gilad from Studio Gimel2; to Meir Sadan and Nir Shaked for the incredible websites' programming; Michal Vaaknin for the loving support during the conception of the project; to our dedicated translators, Sharon Assaf, Joy Bernard, Amy Sapan, and Michal Gerling; and Naama Herman for her kind backing.
