On, In, and Within a Place
Six Modes of Operation in Israeli Conceptual Art and Landscape Architecture in the 1970s
in Israel Studies ReviewAll currencies in US Dollar
Abstract
This article examines six modes of operation on, in, and within a place in Israeli conceptual art and landscape architecture. These modes—action-in-place; intervention; place-making; representation; readymade; and second-nature—maintain landscape architecture's conception of a genius loci, the spirit of the place. They also attend to place as a new and critical means of operation in the 1970s emerging field of conceptual art. This article explores diverse attitudes and motivations for operating with/in place, as it became a fundamental issue in the international arena in the 1970s, in relation to Israeli cultural, political, social, and environmental concerns. In the context of the period's sociopolitical turmoil and ideological controversy, the article's two focal points—the six-mode perspective and the disciplines’ attitude toward place—complement each other and attend to the manifold aspects of place (ha-Makom) in Israel, while highlighting its intricacy.
Contributor Notes
EFRAT HILDESHEIM is a landscape architect, a teaching fellow at the Azrieli School of Architecture, Tel Aviv University, were she also earned her PhD, and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion—IIT (2019–2022). Hildesheim specialized in Israeli landscape architecture as a research fellow at the Azrieli Architectural Archive, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2018–2019). Her interdisciplinary interests include Israeli landscape architecture; land and conceptual art; and the critical discourse on roads and borders.
TAL ALON-MOZES is a landscape architect and Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. She holds a MLA degree from UC Berkeley and a PhD from the Technion. Her areas of interest include the landscapes of the past: histories of the designed landscapes of Israel; the landscapes of the present: green infrastructure for contemporary Israel; and landscapes for the future: landscape architecture pedagogy. Among her published works are two edited books on Israel's modern landscape architects, and numerous articles representing her diverse areas of interest.
ERAN NEUMAN is the Dean of the Yolanda and David Katz Faculty of the Arts, Tel Aviv University, and a professor of architecture at the Azrieli School of Architecture, Tel Aviv University. Additionally, Prof. Neuman is the founding director of the Azrieli Architectural Archive, Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Neuman's research concentrates on architectural culture in the twentieth century. His wide range of publications includes the books Shoah Presence: Architectural Representations of the Holocaust (Ashgate, 2014); Performalism: Form and Performance in Digital Architecture (Routledge, 2015); and Arieh Sharon: The Nation's Architect (Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2018).