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The Local Muse explores the unnatural relationship between the living body and the museum. It revisits the term 'museum' and its Ancient Greek origins (‘mouseion’), which referred to a temple or sanctuary dedicated to the Muses, and examines the potential to revive the Muses and restore the museum’s original qualities as a meeting place for contemplation, reading, and the exchange of knowledge.

 

Taking advantage of the museum's viewing customs - the observer's freedom of choice, the simultaneous nature of museum spaces, and the habit of looking at objects rather than living bodies - the work presents viewers with a kind of disjointed performance. The dance and the music occur simultaneously in two different spaces. It is impossible to experience the entire work in one go, a part of it is always missed.

 

The sense of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) resonates deeply with a recurring text in the work, written by the American artist Mirele Ukeles Laderman. In it, she describes the transition from being an artist to being a mother. Whereas ‘being a mom’ means constantly missing out on everything that happens while you're a mother, being a ‘mom artist’ also means missing out on everything that would have happened if you weren't a mom. In the late 1960s, Ukeles Lederman introduced 'Maintenance Art', a concept within which she modified the common hierarchy within the art world by shining a light on the invisible people in daily life such as sanitation workers, cooks, and mothers.

 

Continuing this line of thought, in The Local Muse, I consider the discipline of dance as my 'Maintenance Art'. The dancer’s practice is a relentless routine of maintenance. Typically showcased as a flawless display, dance often obscures the tedious and Sisyphean labor of the dancing body - be it the professional sacrifice of a body that has given birth or the natural aging of any dancing body. The work exposes the thoughts of the creative dancer, the creative mechanisms that rely upon years of accumulated knowledge, diverse techniques, and productive experience. The work fuses the process and the product, the hard worker and the glamorous performer.

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The Local Muse, 2023. Site specific. Tel Aviv Museum - Rich Gallery and the Foyer. As part of the exhibition, Imagine a Museum. Curator: Ruti Direktor.

By: Sharon Zuckerman Weiser

Performing and co-creating:

Muses of Practice: Michael Getman and Sharon Zuckerman Weiser

Muses of Sound: Keren Dunitz and Tamuz Dekel

Costumes: Tamar Ben Cnaan

Artistic accompaniment: Shani Granot.

Inspired by my Muse of Memory Mirele Ukeles Laderman.

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