The Gallery Hagalleria is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in France by Tami Notsani. Time is an important notion in the work of this artist who develops her projects over duration long enough to know her “subjects” intimately.  By photographing places and people close to her over the years she rewrites their metamorphoses. In this exhibition Tami has chosen to present rural landscape portraits that questions the interdependence between man and nature.
 
Tami Notsani photographs some places in Galilee and in Burgundy. In these landscapes there’s no one, not even a human figure. We recognize some houses, roads, highway construction, ruins or concrete walls. We also notice the grass, fields, trees, sometimes even a garden patch.  The traces of man are severely etched in nature; the remains of nature after the bulldozers and the cement mixers have already been through.  But also, all too visible are the traces of another battle, the one of nature’s revenge delivered against man with the help of time. The roads bore deeper, the facade colors erase, the walls tumble down and the stones roll away. Maybe, one day, there won’t be anything more than a meager sign of what could have been constructed in these places and those who had lived there. These photographs are seemingly peaceful, almost calm yet they contain signs of destruction and interment. This is a good enough reason to attentively observe them.
Another reason is that Tami Notsani presents images of ancient French rural landscapes along with that of recent Israeli countryside. Nevertheless there is no inscription that allows us to distinguish them from one another. That’s just what she wants; that we could possibly mistake them, that one isn’t quite sure, that our landmarks are missing. There is nothing apparent as documentary in these images. This is not a written journal she upkeeps, rather an anthropological reflection that she ponders over.
In another time under different circumstances, other populations have sought to take possession of the territories.  They have proclaimed and continue to declare their owner’s rights, their absolute power. From one country to another, their means seem so obviously alike: to establish themselves on higher ground, to trace straight lines on a slope, to emphasize horizontal constructions, to impose a geometric regularity upon the irregularity of remains and vegetation. This kind of architecture is something of an insult by its mediocrity and abundance. Perhaps this is due to the original purity, the freedom to go fortuitously and the ignorance of borders? There remains nothing more than memories and regrets.
It’s not by accident that Tami Notsani decided to present a photograph of a concrete parallelepiped alone on the wall. This was a food reserve for the troops. It could be just as well a blockhouse or a tombstone.
 
Philippe Dagen
 
Born in Haifa in 1972, Tami Notsani lives and works in Paris and in Israel. She graduated from the Fresnoy in Turcoing and the Bezalel FIne Arts Academy in Jerusalem. The artist regularly exhibits in France and abroad. Most recent exhibitions include: Vidéo-appart – Paris/Dubai, Galerie 2B - Budapest, Emily Harvey Gallery - New-York, Galerie DoHyang Lee - Paris. Notsani has participated in several residencies and has also received numerous awards.
* Inspired by the poem ‘Morning Song’ by Nathan Alterman

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