Extra City

Mother's Day by Smadar Dreyfus (1963 Tel Aviv, lives and works in London) originates at the Israeli-Syrian ceasefire line in the Golan Heights, across which the local Druze community has been geographically separated for several decades in the absence of a peace agreement. At the heart of this audiovisual installation are sound recordings of dialogues on the annual Syrian 'Mother's day' celebration, between mothers on the Israeli-controlled side of the ceasefire line and their student daughters and sons who arrived from Damascus to what is known as the 'Shouting Hill' on the Syrian side. Exchanging greetings via a sound system set up for the occasion, these voices enact an imposed boundary, striving for intimacy across the geography of the valley.

Following on from her large scale installation Lifeguards (2005), Mother's Day is part of Dreyfus' investigation into the role of the voice in the constitution of contested public spaces, as well as its function as a mediator between individual and collective and its implication in the negotiation of cultural perspective.

Smadar Dreyfus studied at the Royal College of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Her work has been shown internationally and in solo exhibitions at IKON Gallery Off-site, Birmingham, 2005, and the Victoria Miro Gallery, London, in 2006. Most recently her work has been included in Trial Balloons at Museo de Arte Contemporàneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), Spain 2006, and the 9th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul 2005.

Amongst others her work was reviewed in ArtForum, Contemporary, Camera Austria, and Art Monthly.


Extra City
centrum voor hedendaagse kunst

Tulpstraat 79, BE-2060 Antwerpen
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