The stage and the rift: Heidegger and Israeli art

Dror Pimentel

doi:10.59391/rh3nyn58

Authors

Dror Pimentel Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3478-9932

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59391/rh3nyn58

Keywords:

Heidegger, Israeli art, aletheia, phenomenology, Ereignis

Abstract

Writing on Israeli art in light of Heidegger is a pioneering and subversive act: pioneering, because it has not yet been undertaken to any significant extent; subversive, because it challenges the exclusion of Heidegger from Israeli academic discourse due to his Nazi past. The engagement with major works from the corpus of Israeli art through a Heideggerian perspective proceeds along two paths, corresponding to the two ways in which art is addressed in Heidegger’s essay “On the origin of the work of art”: the first is associated with the image of a stage (the open); the second is associated with the image of the rift (Riß), within which the strife between earth and world unfolds. This endeavor proves fruitful to both parties: it broadens the discussion of Israeli art, while enriching Heidegger’s discussion of art by introducing new dimensions to the notions of the stage and the rift.

Author Biography

Dror Pimentel, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem

Prof. Dror Pimentel teaches at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem, both at the Visual and Material Culture Dept., and at the M.A. Program of Policy and Theory of Art. Among his areas of expertise are continental philosophy, phenomenology, aesthetics and semiotics. Among his publications: The Dream of Purity: Heidegger with Derrida (Magnes Press, 2009 [Hebrew]); Aesthetics (Bialik Institute, 2014 [Hebrew]); Heidegger and Derrida: Being Written (Palgrave Macmillan NY, 2019); Aesth-etchis: Of Hospitality in Art (Bialik Institute, 2024 [Hebrew]); Aesth-etchis: Of Hospitality in Art (Palgrave Macmillan NY, 2025). He also published articles in: Iyyun: The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly; Heidegger Studies; British Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology; Performance Philosophy Journal, among others. He also translated to Hebrew Heidegger’s Letter on “Humanism” (Magnes Press, 2018).

References

Amotz, Dalia. From the series Fields of Light. 1980–1985. Black-and-white photograph. Tel Aviv Museum collection.

Amotz, Dalia. “Excess reality, empty mirror, marked nature.” In Dalia Amotz: Knowing the Black Land. On the Way to the Fields of Light, curated by Sarah Breitberg-Semel, 7–14. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2000. [Hebrew]

Derrida, Jacques. The Truth in Painting. Translated by Geoffrey Bennington and Ian McLeod. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1987.

Dorchin, Yaakov. Sealed Well and Petrified Lily 1. 1995. Iron. Shaul Hamelech Boulevard, Tel Aviv.

Ginton, David. “On The Back Side of the Painting: a conversation between Surin Heller and David Ginton.” In David Ginton: Blue-and-White Trompe-l’œil 1994–1995. Ein Hod: Janco Dada Museum – Art for the People, 1995. [Hebrew]

Ginton, David. Back Side of a Painting. 1995 (2010), color photograph, 76 × 90 cm. Artist collection.

Gissinger, Simon. “The violence of the gift: Aesth-ethics and deconstruction.” Inscriptions 9, no. 1 (January 2026), 26–37.

Heidegger, Martin. “On the essence of truth.” In Basic Writings. Translated by John Sallis, 115–138. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

Heidegger, Martin. “The origin of the work of art.” In Basic Writings. Translated by Albert Hofstadter, 139–213. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

Heidegger, Martin. “The question concerning technology.” In Basic Writings. Translated by William Lovitt, 307–342. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

Heidegger, Martin. Introduction to Metaphysics. Translated by Gregory Fried and Richard Polt. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.

Klazmer, Gabi. Mandatory Sculpture No. 1. 1991. Various metals. Ben-Gurion Boulevard, Tel Aviv.

Houlgate, Stephen. The Opening of Hegel’s Logic: from Being to Infinity. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2006.

Landau, Sigalit. Shelter. 2012. Bronze, 480 × 350 × 125 cm. Artist collection.

Levinas, Emmanuel. Totality and Infinity: an essay on exteriority. Translated by Alphonso Lingis, Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press, 1969.

Levinas, Emmanuel. “Heidegger, Gagarin, and us.” In Difficult Freedom: essays on Judaism. Translated by Seán Hand, 231–234. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.

Mann, Itamar. “The sealed wells of the soul.” Erev Rav. 3 August 2023. [Hebrew] https://www.erev-rav.com/archives/56052.

Marion, Jean-Luc. On Excess: studies of saturated phenomena. Translated by Robyn Horner and Vincent Berraud. New York: Fordham University Press, 2002.

Pimentel, Dror. Being Written: Heidegger with Derrida. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2019.

Pimentel, Dror. Aesth-ethics: of hospitality in art. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2024.

Schapiro, Meyer. “The still life as a personal object – a note on Heidegger and Van Gogh.” In Selected Papers, Vol. IV: Theory and Philosophy of Art: style, artist, and society, 135–142. New York: George Braziller, 1994.

Ullman, Micha. Ground. 1989. Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv.

Ullman, Micha. The Empty Library. 1995. Bebelplatz, Berlin.

Ullman, Micha. Equinox. 2010. Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Ullman, Micha. Letters of Light. 2023. The New National Library, Jerusalem.

Ulrich, Haggai. “The place of truth in the art of Dalia Amotz.” Bezalel: journal of visual and material culture 21 (July 2011). [Hebrew] https://journal.bezalel.ac.il/he/protocol/article/3293.