Past

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Danny Avidan

The Younger Dryas

The exhibition "The Younger Dryas" by Danny Avidan, held at the BARK BERLIN GALLERY from July 14 to 25, 2019, featured a collection of artworks made from black and white clay, including reliefs and vase sculptures. At the core of these works were themes of desire, violence, and irony, symbolically conveyed through figurative representations and their sociocultural transformation into cultural artifacts, such as vases. Avidan skillfully balanced between the human and the animalistic, exploring the tension between visibility, inevitability, and sublimation.

The title, "The Younger Dryas," refers to a geological period marked by sudden climatic changes, which is mirrored in the artworks' reflection of historical and natural phenomena. These elements emphasize the enduring animalistic structure within living beings, highlighting the humorous contradictions that arise when human intellect attempts to control natural forces. This dynamic was especially visible in the duality of materials and forms, illustrating a relationship between primitiveness and culture, wildness and civilization.

Avidan’s artistic approach, transforming clay into both abstract and expressive sculptures, gave the works a tangible yet symbolic significance. The exhibition was perceived as an intense exploration of fundamental human questions, with the selected motifs and the raw, primal materials subtly leading the narrative into irony, ultimately pushing the concepts to an absurd conclusion.