Niv Tishbi | The Sunbathers

In 1929, commemorating the first Hebrew city’s first 20 years, Haaretz Newspaper published two articles about Tel Aviv's part in the industry and economy of the State. "Views about Tel Aviv have shifted," wrote W. Moses in one. "Eight years ago, or so, when talking with a Zionist about Tel Aviv, you could hear scorn towards this city of idlers."

Indeed, from its inception, the city served as a hub for businesses, workshops and laborers, and a site of leisure culture: a western city in the Levant, which allowed locals, and tourists alike, to sit idle. Today, it seems that high-tech has taken the place of labor, but the city remained an escape for those who seek freedom in the broadest sense of the word. 

The installation comprises the familiar sunbeds from the urban beach. The cloth bed is replaced by human figures sewn to the beds in different positions. They offer a new perspective on the almost-blind yearning for freedom and its illusion; locked to the iron frame they create a mutation of sorts, inbreeding the object that symbolizes rest, comfort and freedom, with the human body. They seem to melt into the cloth, merging with the object and becoming a duplicated product for the masses. The work carries a religious overtone; a new religion sanctifying freedom and those desires common to us all - comfort, abundance, detachment, escape and peace.