An exhibition celebrating the enduring bond between the people of Israel and the natural world, as reflected through science, literature, music, and art curated by Tsila Hayun, Neta Asaf and Karine Shabtai at the National Library of Israel.
The National Library is in full bloom. Hidden among the pages and collections are countless flowers represented in stories and poems, in ornamental patterns and illustrations, in music and sound, in academic studies and in reference books. They appear in the verses of the Songs of Songs, whose protagonists are likened to flowers and whose love unfolds in nature, as well as in ancient manuscripts illuminated with a range of flowers.
This exhibition focuses on local flowers since the emergence of Zionism. Plants and flowers served as an important means of expressing the connection between the Jewish people and the land. Flowers represented the country's unique and variegated natural expanses and constituted an integral part of the Zionist educational process. The first local botanists wrote flora books and academic studies that disseminated their botanical knowledge. In doing so, they contributed to the construction of Hebrew culture and to strengthening its affinity to the land. A dedicated space within the exhibition features some of the botanical illustrations accompanying these studies. Beyond their stunning colours and compelling compositions, they faithfully capture the original plants.
In the late 19th century, pressed flowers were popular souvenirs among pilgrims and visitors to the Holy Land. Pressing flowers became a means of connecting with the landscape for Jews living both in Israel and in the diaspora. Flower - picking also became a national leisure activity which ceased following a widespread public campaign and legal regulation due to the realization that it was threatening the range of local flora with extinction.
Beyond their national and Zionist symbolism, wildflowers and cultivated flowers were also imbued with personal, emotional and relational resonances. These were expressed in poems and songs of love and beauty, alongside ones imbued with pain and mourning which were assimilated into the national canon. Israeli children were themselves likened to flowers: natural,free and full of vitality and potential for growth. Many of them spent their Saturdays and holidays walking in nature and observing flowers with their families.
The works created for this exhibition reveal the centrality of flowers as an inseparable part of local experience, memory and aesthetics.
This exhibition was made possible thanks to the generosity of Great Hill, AG Fund, Joyce and Daniel Strauss, in memory of Stephanie and Jack Gabel and Gwendolyn and Joseph Strauss. Dr. David and Jemima Jeselsohn of Zurich, Switzerland.
During the month of August, guided tours of the exhibitions will begin, offered to visitors, alongside tours of the permanent exhibition at the library. In addition, families and children will be invited to shorter, tailored tours of the exhibition, which will be integrated with the summer activity that will take place during the summer holidays: "The Secret Garden" - on the themes of flowers and nature.
To register for tours and for details about the exhibitions, visit the National Library website
Photo Rut Kopel
