From Bassa to Sababa - Israeli comics artists in London
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About the exhibition

Take The Bassa With Sababa

A DEBUT SHOWCASE OF ISRAELI COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVEL ARTISTS IN LONDON
Spiro Ark Gallery, 17.2-16.3 2008

'Taking the bassa with sababa': to take the bad with a pinch of salt, to stay positive, to see the bigger picture and not let the momentarily depressing grind one down.

This purposely confounding English title, adapting daily Jewish Israeli slang based on Arabic Israeli words, is indeed an attempt to encompass the range and complexity of an emerging, dynamic scene of young Israeli art, showcased in London for the first time and exclusively.

Working within the harshness of daily Israeli reality yet constantly balancing the local and political with the personal on one end, and the cosmopolitan/universal on the other, this group of comics and graphic novel artists demonstrate an immediacy and poignancy unparalleled in forms of art that are either too high brow or too market-oriented to be able to truly reflect the lives, ideas and desires of a generation suspended between a 100-year-old conflict and the shopping malls erected around it.

Therefore, this exhibition targets both fans of comics and graphic novels seeking independent frontiers and approaches within the medium, and people who are curious about contemporary Israel and are willing to face a range of artistic expression that defies expectation and refuses easy captions. That can be critically realistic or psychedelically elusive - often both at the same time.


Participating Artists:

Michal Baruch

Ifat Cohen-Gabai

Roni Fahima

Amitai Sandy

Koren Shadmi

Meirav Shaul

Assia Vilenkin

Dula Yavne

Gilad Seliktar


Where: Spiro Ark Gallery, 25-26 Enford Street, London W1H 1DW

Nearest tube / rail: Marylebone / Baker Street

When: 17 Feb 2008 - 16 March 2008

Opening hours:

Open every day 10am-5pm (closed on Sunday)

Website: http://www.israelicomics.co.uk

About the title

‘Take The Bassa With Sababa’ (in Hebrew ‘kach tabassa basababa’) is a slang coin of speech lifted from the lore of military service, and adapted to Israeli reality in general. While the Jewish and Arabic Israelis are largely segregated from one another, it is fascinating to note just how many Arabic words and phrases are fully integrated to Hebrew slang and common dialect. The Arabic word ‘Bassa’ means a depressing, unpleasant or disappointing situation, while ‘Sababa’ means the opposite – a joyous, uplifting or encouraging one. Taking the bassa with sababa means, therefore, to take the bad with a pinch of salt, to stay positive, to see the bigger picture and not let the momentarily depressing grind one down.

We felt that the phrase is relevant to this showcase of young Israeli comics/graphic novel artists in two ways. First, the different habitats portrayed by the artists, ranging from the public or political to the private and intimate and the wholly imaginary, all represent the poetic struggle to come to terms with the harshness of Israeli reality, and create sane dwelling spaces for self-realisation and assertion, generally as Israelis and specifically as artists.

Second, and more conceptually speaking, there is a considerable amount of irony, even self-parody, in picking an everyday slang phrase, translating it to English, and using it as a title for an art exhibition. It addresses the difficulty young Israelis experience in reconciling the local with the global, the peripheral and provincial with the cosmopolitan and international. The desire to escape an often oppressive, unkind reality, combined with the understanding that one carries this reality with them wherever they go.

This everlasting chasm has been typical to Israel’s identity crises since, and even before, its formation. For a young generation living outside the ideological consensus that characterised Israel in the past, but at the same time aware of the void within which they dwell, this title expresses both hardship and optimism, stasis and vitality, bitterness and humour, a weary shrug and a defiant, life-affirming wink.

Avi Pitchon

 

 

 

>Private view: Sunday 17.2 16:00-22:00

>Online sale of signed & numbered digital prints coming soon!

>Opening hours:

Open every day 10am-5pm (closed on Sunday)

>Address: 25-26 Enford Street, London W1H 1DW

>Nearest tube / rail: Marylebone / Baker Street

>Tel: 02077239991

The people behind the exhibition


Doron Yacobi Initiator and co-producer
Limore Racin Co-producer
Nitza Spiro gallerist
Curators: Avi Pitchon, Amitai Sandy and Doron Yacobi
Artistic advisors: Paul Gravett, Ariel Kahn
PR & Producer in practice: Tom Levin

A note on the organisers

Paul Gravett
An internationally recognised scholar and authority on comics and graphic novels. In addition to many publications and exhibitions, Paul has organised the COMICA festival at the ICA to great acclaim, is responsible for a BBC series on comics to air this winter, and has extensive media contacts.

Ariel Kahn
An academic who regularly lectures on comics and graphic novels, Ariel has published several articles on Israeli comics, and contributed to The Jewish Graphic Novel, to be published by Brandeis University Press to coincide with Jewish Book Week.

Limore Racin
Limore Racin holds a PhD from University College London. Limore is a member of the International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology and uses both her professional and personal background as a cultural psychologist to contribute to the idea generation and development of the exhibition.

Amitai Sandy
Amitai Sandy is a political artist, comix creator and professional illustrator. He works in many different media and uses different techniques and drawing styles. Extremely influential in the Israeli arts scene, Amitai’s art has been exhibited in Tel-Aviv, Berlin and New York.

Nitza Spiro
For the last twenty years, the Spiro has been synonymous with innovative approaches to cultural and educational Jewish events, for both adults and children. Nitza Spiro, co-founder of the Spiro Institute and Spiro Ark, is well known as an educator and Hebrew enthusiast, promoting Israeli art and culture.

Doron Yacobi
A solicitor and corporate director for an international real estate development company, Doron is an art collector whose passionate long term interest in the Israeli comics scene and personal connections with the various artists involved are the impetus behind the exhibition.

Avi Pitchon

Is an independent curator, journalist, artist and critic. He co-curated the influential 'Wonderyears - New Reflections On The Holocaust and Nazism' in Berlin in 2003, showcasing 23 Israeli artists, and collaborated with the London-based Yad Arts on 'Conflicted', an exhibition of Israeli photography, featured as part of the Dash Festival in 2005.

Tom Levin

An international entrepreneur, Tom has produced numerous projects in all kinds of media all over Europe, the US and Israel. His intimate knowledge of London's trend setting crowd will surely contribute to making this modest exhibition one of the memorable events of the year.