Sarit Shapira: Contemplation and Practice
Sarit Shapira
2003
Sarit Shapira – Selected Writings
This collection brings together seminal essays by Sarit Shapira, a leading curator and theorist who reshaped Israeli art discourse. Through critical yet historically conscious writing, she explored the intersections of local and global culture, engaging deeply with modernism, language, literature, cinema, and politics.
The selected texts reflect two main threads in her work: theoretical essays tied to major exhibitions like "Routes of Wandering" and "Appearance of Nothing", and writings on individual artists she followed closely. Alongside her curatorial breakthroughs—"Borders of Peace", "Transit", "Street Cats", "Black Holes", and the "Babel" trilogy—Shapira enabled bold, large-scale installations that brought Israeli and international art into a shared, dynamic conversation.
- Design: Michael Gordon
- Editing: Daphna Raz, Naomi Siman-Tov, Michael Gordon
- Texts: Sarit Shapira, Ory Dessau
- Language editing: Daphna Raz
- Copies: 1000
- Pages: 447
- Type of binding: Hard cover
- Dimensions (cm): 15.7X23.2
- Printing: DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg GmbH
- Binding: Michael Gordon
- Type of printing: Four-color printing
- Publication: Asia Publishers
- Place of publication: Ramat-Hasharon
- ISBN: 9789657434376
Sarit Shapira (1957–2018) was a leading Israeli curator, scholar, and lecturer. She curated influential exhibitions such as "Routes of Wandering" at the Israel Museum and wrote critically about key figures like Rafi Lavie and Nahum Tevet. As a senior curator at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and a lecturer at the Bezalel Academy, she played a central role in shaping contemporary Israeli art discourse.
Known for her sharp theoretical insight and curatorial intuition, Shapira challenged artistic and cultural conventions. Her work consistently explored the ties between art, identity, and place, making her a complex and uncompromising voice in Israeli cultural life.
