ARTiculAction Art Review - Special Issuue Aug. 2016 | Page 63

Petra Paul & Ophira Avisar

ICUL CTION
C o n t e m p o r a r y

A r t

R e v i e w

Special Issue

May), organized by Valentina Anna
Mitterer and Kathrin Sieder, were Elke
Krasny spoke about menstrual art and I
spoke about my work:
http://menstruationsnetzwerk.at/symposi
um/
It's no doubt that interdisciplinary
collaborations as the one that you have
established together are today ever
growing forces in Contemporary Art and
that the most exciting things happen
when creative minds from different fields
of practice meet and collaborate on a
project... could you tell us something
about this effective synergy? By the way,
Peter Tabor once stated that
"collaboration is working together with
another to create something as a
synthesis of two practices, that alone one
could not": what's your point about this?
Can you explain how your work
demonstrates communication between
two artists?
Ophira Avisar: The encounter between me

and Petra was quick and intuitive. Again I
emphasize the big role of humor as a
dressing for mutual subjects. I feel we
created almost immediately a space of
artistic dialog. I felt there is a kind of
undefined bonding between our two
artistic points of view that contains the
differences. All the works we made
together couldn't be made alone and not
with another partner. They are made from
our mutual minds. For the sake of our art
we made some kind of relocation to each
others way of thinking.
Petra Paul: Yes that is true, because we

both work on a project, we both have
ideas and we put them together. I could
not do this work without Ophira. There is a
lot of exchange between us. Even some
work like her ”Belong Don't Belong” and

my work ”Architecture is My Life. The
Fictive Life of Chawa Lieber” can be shown
together, because we both used parts of
books we both found in the streets of Tel
Aviv. A big part of our work is the fun we
have, when we work together. We are
laughing a lot. We make serious work, but
we really have a lot of fun. Other things
we did could also be seen as artwork, but
nobody documented it. We found a balloon
in the street and we played with it on our
way home, and we played with all people
who crossed us. Everybody was playing
with us except one man. It has to do with
getting in touch with people, and a
important point: the people were smiling.
It is a very creative dialog between us, and
also between us and the others. I really
love working with you, Ophira! There is a
deep understanding. I was irritated when I
read, we just know some months. It is for
me as if we know us all of our life.
One of the hallmarks of your practice is
the capability to create a direct
involvement with the viewers, who are
urged to evolve from a condition of mere
spectatorship. So before leaving this
conversation we would like to pose a
question about the nature of the
relationship of your art with your
audience. Do you consider the issue of
audience reception as being a crucial
component of your decision-making
process, in terms of what type of
language is used in a particular context?
Ophira Avisar: I treat my audience as part

of one of my families. As I said I feel I am a
citizen of many places, many ideas. I
assume "my people" will understand and
do their best to be with me. They are
fellow wo/man. I expect nothing but I
believe in their drive to listen deeply.

29