David Behar-Perahia

דוד בהר - פרחיה

http://www.davidbehar.net

Artist statement – David Behar – Perahia
Site-specific art is an artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork.
For me, the Background for the artistic process is a local site, in a real and concrete place, where the artistic act is thought through within that place, made with the place and for the place and its people.

The characters of the first stages of a process are of observation and research, a practice that expose and discover layers of context in the fabric of the place. This process is similar in spirit to the archeological one, but here it is of an artistic inquiry, exposing context and ideas for a given situation. Various possible contextual layers are usually encountered: The physical-material-formal, historical- social-political, environmental-ecological and the layer of natural phenomena. All these cultural aspects are tested for a given situation that exists in a point within a particular space – time matrix.

The act creates an invitation for man to experience afresh the place, bringing him to a state of wonder. This approach tries to connect man to his surrounding by a sensuous experience within an interaction that excites curiosity and inquiry. This personal – interactive experience lead to a contextual personal discovery.

As a sculptor I consider the truth to the materials as important as the truth to the place I work with. Materials have to juxtapose with the site in order to echo and sing the song of the place. They should ignite the senses by creating a spatial texture that invites a variety of encounters and possible meanings.

Time - the forth dimension, the marker of change and life, is the element that ignites our perception and transforms the ephemeral to a locus of surprise and wonder.
The timely intervention in place leaves traces - traces that echo in the personal space of memory. This echo flame within us with every future visit to the local, although the place has no remains left of the event.
The left over after such a dialogic interaction with the surrounding are process traces: sketches, drawings, and images – all transform from a living experience into visual remembrance, thus live after in a memory space.

I see my sculpture as an humanistic intervention, an act that puts man at the centre, an event that aspire to give man a plethora of possibilities, of contexts and meanings. This dialogue, in which Man is acting collaboratively with the qualities and materials of the place, is thus suggested by the art.
I find the act of sculpting in a local place as an act of giving; as if the place was given anew on a candid tray, an act that brings in a unique perspective that strength and focus the sense of belonging to a place as well as suggesting a wide reading of context and meaning.