More Than One

More Than One

The Biennale for Drawing in Israel, sponsored and produced by the Jerusalem Artists’ House since 2001, has cemented its status as a comprehensive, unique artistic enterprise, an ongoing celebration of the medium of drawing and its many and diverse manifestations. Like previous editions, the 8th Biennale was held at the Jerusalem Artists’ House and in other venues in the city center. The 71 artists exhibiting in the different venues were selected from over 600 Israeli artists who responded to the open call. The selection and scope of the exhibited works guarantee a broad, diverse and intriguing display of contemporary practice in the old but frequently renewed medium of drawing.

As suggested by its title, “More Than One”, Traces VIII focuses on instances of drawing which span more than one sheet. It presents series and clusters of independent drawings, whose conjunction and juxtaposition constitute a whole greater than the sum of its parts, and yet—a whole that is neither absolute nor strives for the monumental, but rather one that attests to the relativity of things, and to the relativity and transience of their interrelations. The structuring modes of drawings in multi-sheet formats, as series and clusters, is the common denominator of all the 8th biennale. At the same time, each individual show offers a unique insight into the impulse or necessity inherent in an expression which extends over more than one sheet, introducing different contexts for the various manifestations of multiplicity, presented in these formats.