ABOUT

ITAMAR MENDES FLOHR

Sculptor of kinetic and site-specific works, painter, cinematographer, lighting and set designer, born in 1979, living and creating in Jerusalem

ARTIST STATEMENT

Drawing on my various occupations as a cinematographer, carpenter, lighting and set designer, I seek to incorporate these different practices, ways of seeing and thinking, into my artworks. My work process is mostly connected to my desire to follow simple, yet at the same time, exhilarating natural phenomena, to be intrigued by them.

I am interested in the meeting between different materials - like stone brushing against stone, a light beam that hits iron, or layers of peeling plaster. I try to imitate these meetings, to search for the complex processes that start one instant – suspended in a particular time, place, viewpoint, state of aggregation. That same instant that cannot ever return, other than trying to come back in its new circumstances.
I want to bring the same playful passion that drives me to the viewer, the same excitement and joy from the games nature plays.

STUDIES & RESIDENCIES

1997 The Musrara School of Photography, Jerusalem

2000 - 2005 The Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem, graduated with Honours

2005 Cinematography Master Class, Budapest, Hungary

2006 Jerusalem Studio School of Drawing and Painting

2011 - 2012 Participation in the “Mamuta” Artist Residency project at Daniela Pasal House in Ein Karem, Jerusalem

2014 - 2020 Member of Artist Group at Mamuta, Hansen House, Jerusalem

2016 - 2021 Resident Artist at Bet Ha-Gat, Artist Community, Ein Karem, Jerusalem

CINEMATOGRAPHY & LIGHTING DESIGN

Since 2005, has worked as a cinematographer on numerous documentaries and features in Israel, Greece, India, Ethiopia, Poland and Cameroon – films (several of which received prizes in Israel and abroad) directed, among others, by Tamar Yarom (To See if I am Smiling), Asher Tlalim, Anat Zuria, Danae Elon (The Patriarch’s Room and Sister’s Song), Reuven Brodsky, Elad Keidan, Dani Rosenberg (Don Quixote in Jerusalem), Ruti Litan, Eran Barak (Pardes Katz my Love)

Cinematography of works by several visual and performance artists: Yudith Schlossberg Yogev, Yael Atzmony and Ktura Manor

Lighting designer in additional film productions as well as sound events ( e.g. “Echoes”, by Amir Boltzman, for Onat HaTarbut, Jerusalem in 2017)

SOLO EXHIBITS

2020

“That We Have Forgotten the Rain” - curated by the Sala-Manca group at Mamuta, the Hansen House, Jerusalem

2015

“Paradise Inn” - Art residency for one in the open air on a large fenced off plot in the Garden of The Hansen House during the summer months, and creation of many works that the viewers could see only through the fence of the Garden of Eden entering into the artist’s private territory. Curated by The Sala-Manca Group

GROUP EXHIBITS & SELECTED PROJECTS / WORKS

2021

Set design for Shai Persil’s play “Badada” – performed at the Acco Theater Festival

2020

Video for the third “Tracks Festival” open studio at Bet HaGat, Ein Karem, Jerusalem

2019

“To Fly like Leonardo” – creation of a 9-meter-long model of Leonardo Da Vinci’s flying machine Bloomfield Science Museum, Jerusalem

2018

Participation in group exhibit “Everything is In Order” at The Kibbutz Gallery, Tel Aviv, curated by Yael Keini, with the kinetic installation “Snake”.

Cinematography of video works in Judith Schlossberg’s exhibit “Brighter than a Thousand Suns” at Mamuta Art and Media Center

2017

“Paradise Inn – the Model” – Mamuta, the Hansend House, Jerusalem. curated by Yaakov Israel

Participation in the exhibit “My Only Weapon is a Feather” at Mamuta, the Hansen House.

Design (by invitation) of interactive sculpture for the “Roofs” Festival of Mekudeshet, Jerusalem. The implementation of the project was postponed due to budgetary considerations.

Studio exhibit at Bet Ha-Gat Arts Center as part of the Jerusalem Arts Festival – with 5 kinetic sculptures

2016

Design and creation of “The Mine of Wonders” a sculptural, interactive installation, containing works by different artists, including my own – at the Gjinogly Art Center – curated by Yudith Schlossberg Yogev

Curator and initiator of “Tracks” – a site specific art event with 26 artists in a one hectare field the Sisters of Zion at Bet HaGat, in the heart of Ein Karem, as part of the Ein Karem Festival. Participating with five installations.

Creation and direction of Art and Residency Center at “Bet Ha-Gat” in Ein Karem, Jerusalem

2015

Participation in the exhibit “We the People” – curated by Rita Krasting at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, with The Eternal Sukkah – a cooperative project with the Sala-Manca Group and Yishayahu Leibowitz, that was acquired by the Israel Museum as part of its permanent collection.

Open studio – at Mamuta, The Hansen House, as part of the Manofim Art Festival

Design and construction of Art Center at the village Calcata, Italy, and the creation of an installation

2014

Participation in He’ara 12, with kinetic sculpture “Dybbuk”, curated by Sala-Manca group at the Hansen House, Jerusalem.

Participation in group exhibit “Living in a Movie,” curated by the Sala- Manca group, at The Hansen House, Jerusalem

Participation in the creation of “The Eternal Sukkah” –a cooperative project with the Sala-Manca Group and Yishayahu Leibowitz – acquisition of Bedouin structure,its disassembly and reconstruction in the garden of The Hansen House

2013

Participation in a group exhibit “Light and Shadow Games” at the Bloomfield Science Museum, Jerusalem

2012

Participation in “TED-x Jerusalem” presenting “machine no.1” in a lecture and performance

Set design and construction for the opera “Serenade to the Wind” by Aldo Finzi, for the Donizetti Opera House in Bergamo, Italy

Participation in the project “Site Specific Art”, in “Manofim- the Opening of the Art Season in Jerusalem”

Participation in the group exhibit “Forces Hidden from the Eye”, Bloomfield since Museum, Jerusalem

2011

Participation in the exhibit “The Museum of the Contemporary” by the Sala-Manca group, in the project “Souvenir Shop”

Creative partner in an international theater project in the framework of the Switzerland-Israel Cultural Season. Creation of the performance “When You’re Dead You’re Done”

Participation in the group exhibit “Outside the Attic,” at the Pirates Gallery, Jerusalem.

Participation in the festival “The Voice of the Word”, Jerusalem

Participation in the Artists’ Village “Sea Wind”, at Bat Yam. Creation of acoustic sculpture at the seashore

Participation in the project “Tabula Rasa,” the public space at the Mahane Yehuda outdoor market.

Participation in the art festival “Baale Basta” at the Mahane Yehuda outdoor market

Participation in the art project “Am’haye” – creation in a shared space.

Set design for children’s play “Traffic Light” of the Martef/Cellar Theater, Jerusalem

2010

Set design for the dance performance “2010” by Yasmin Ferber. Performed at the Intimidance Festival at the Tmuna Theater, Tel Aviv

Set design for the play “Fossilized” in the framework of “Three by Three” of Hazira – Performance Art Arena