All Images and Text by Mendi Kogosowski

The boulevards of Tel Aviv play a significant, even vital role in the city’s cultural life. They are the city’s beating heart, physically located at the city’s heart within short walking distances of each other. Laced with trendy bars and restaurants, shops and galleries, these six or seven boulevards serve a multitude of purposes - from grabbing casual drinks with friends, to holding power meetings, to meeting on a first date, to sitting in the shade of a tree on a bench, watching the world go by. Everything happens on the boulevard. It is the place to see and be seen, to live and to love. Be there. It’s as simple as that.

Therefore, it only seems fitting that about 350 of Tel Aviv’s artists would have their works reproduced and hung along these main boulevards, as part of the city’s centennial celebrations, and as a way of paying homage to Israel’s most prominent art center. This exhibition, curated by Adi Yekutieli, includes the works of modern as well as veteran artists, and touches on many aspects of urban life.

Rothschild Boulevard

Moshe Amar: Searching for Parking

Michal Forrer: Cinderella

Varda Givoli and Ilan Gelber: Cultural Heroes

Aviv Maoz: Office View

Right side--Maya Cohen Levi: Electric Pole; Left side--Tamir Shefer: Eye.

Yifat Bar Lev: The Neighbors

One figure depicted in several of the art works is that of a yellow duck. But make no mistake: this is no ordinary duck. Rather, it is one of the city’s most iconic inhabitants and an official honorary citizen – an honor he shares with the likes of Albert Einstein, Itzhak Perlman and Zubin Mehta. The brainchild of late Israeli caricaturist Dudu Geva, this humanized duck appeared for many years in a weekly comic strip, depicted as fighting the hardships and alienation of the big city. Despite his struggles and occasional bitterness, the duck always remained hopeful and optimistic. “The duck is all of us”, Geva once said in an interview.

In 2008, a large inflatable figure of this loved duck was positioned for six month on top of the city hall building, to the great joy of passers-by. Recently, it received a permanent home as a four-foot statue in Tel Aviv’s Masaryk Square – a quiet little haven in the midst of urban chaos, in close proximity to the abovementioned boulevards. Inscribed with the words “always optimistic”, the statue represents Geva’s vision of an optimistic and joyful city no matter what. Indeed, the duck cannot help but bring a smile to one’s face.

Tsahi Farber: Egg on the Roof




 

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