Nostalgia Sunday – Sali Ariel’s Tel Aviv Bauhaus

March 29, 2009 - 5:27 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday, Travel 

As Tel Aviv’s centennial gets underway and the weather warms up, more and more festive events will be held to celebrate the occasion. One of these happened last night, when the Rozin Center Gallery opened the season with an exhibition of works by painter Sali Ariel.

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Originally from the States, Sali was a long-time Jerusalemite who made the move to Tel Aviv over a decade ago. As she got to know her new home, she noticed it was changing before her eyes. “I started seeing the Ramat Gan business district going up and all the big tall buildings on Rothschild Boulevard and while I don’t think that’s bad, I was afraid we would forget how Tel Aviv looked. I also felt inevitably, Tel Aviv had to change but I didn’t know if it was for better or for worse. I wanted to document it for people in the future so they would know how Tel Aviv was in our time.”

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Ariel feels she looked at Tel Aviv as an outsider, “because I had just moved from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv seemed to have a bright happy fun look about it. And maybe for that reason I didn’t see the trash and crumbliness, because I was comparing it to the serious and the grayness of Jerusalem, which I also love and think is beautiful, but very different.”

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Ariel started out wandering Yarkon Park and trying to sketch the natural surroundings. “But whenever I started to paint trees there were buildings peeking out form behind. And when i started to paint buildings, shockingly, a lot of what i saw was green leafy stuff — they was sort of inseparable, the two.”

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Ariel was not a Bauhaus aficionado when she started working on this theme. “I was just doing buildings that looked nice to me. And then i was offered an exhibit at the Bauhaus Center and have had several exhibits since then. It also turns out that many of the building that I like are Bauhaus — but not all. Some of them are the older buildings in what’s called oriental or eclectic style.”

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More works can be viewed at Sali Ariel’s website and the current exhibit will be on display at the Rozin Center Gallery in Ramat Aviv until April 22.

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Apple-mania arrives in Israel

September 24, 2008 - 11:32 AM by · 5 Comments
Filed under: Business, Technology 

Apple store yes, iphone no. Well, idigital launched the first Apple store of sorts in Israel this week and the country was a-buzzin. I didn’t really feel the need to go since I’ve been to Apple stores all over the world and what I am really going to see that’s new anyway? Next time I’m in Ramat Aviv (which will most likely be never) I’ll stop by…unless they start selling the iphone. Which I’m hearing rumblings in the street that it is happening sooner than later. It’s important to note that this is not an official Apple Store and while the store looks identical to Apple stores elsewhere in the world there are indeed differences. My favorite is that the Genius bar is called the Guru bar.

Globes reports:

The new 300 square meter store in the Ramat Aviv mall in Tel Aviv is exceptional for its design, which is radically different from that of other computer retail chains in Israel. The Apple flagship store in Israel is almost identical in design to the stores spread across the US and Europe, the only difference being in size, since the chain’s stores overseas are still much larger than the newly opened Israeli branch. iDigital has also taken the initiative, in view of the criticism leveled at it over prices of Apple products in Israel, which are far higher than those abroad, and has reduced prices on most products by 10% to 33.7%.

I’m glad to see that they’ve lowered their prices. I’ve complained about their markup in a previous post, and while the decrease is welcome, I fear it is not enough to make Apple a successful brand in Israel. Though other steps are being taken to make the Apple a contender. An official Hebrew translation of OS X is now available and is being offered as a free download for Hebrew speakers.

Check out this video of the countdown. Includes the patented Israeli rhythmic clapping.

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Foto Friday

August 8, 2008 - 9:09 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture 

Check out the Eretz Israel Museum in Ramat Aviv for a great photography exhibit, entitled Zoltan Kluger, Chief Photographer 1933-1958. For 25 years, the Hungarian-born Kluger documented the ‘Zionist project’ and the making of the state, after arriving here in 1933. From his first moments in the country, when he photographed the opening of the Haifa port, Arab demonstrations in Jaffa against Jewish immigration and immigrants from Germany, Kluger gave a face to the new Jews, pioneers, kibbutzniks, urbanites, pre-Hagana and Palmach fighters, immigrants and sabras. Working for the JNF and Keren Hayesod, many of his photos were national property and were the basis of this exhibit, telling the story of the Land of Israel narrative.

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