The Wall Murals in Kibbutz Or Haner

In my post about our daytrip on Saturday, I mentioned the wonderful wall art we saw in Kibbutz Or Haner and said it deserves a separate post, so here goes.

We had two local guides, Kibbutz members, who provided us with information about each work of art, its history and some perceived meanings. We were also given a brochure (lucky me! I would never have been able to write this post from memory.)

The creators of these murals are Daniela Almeida and Jose Kura, famous Argentinian artist from Corrientes. They are using an interesting technique, where a wall is covered with layers of colorful plaster/cement. Each layer is of a different color, and these are then used as the bass for carving out the image, creating a three-dimenstional painting where variation in depth of carving is used to create different colors.

This type of art is known as Correntin Muralism and is typical to north-east Argentina. The themes and styles are influenced by local Argentinian historic, political and social themes. During 2007, Kura and Almeida were invited to the kibbutz (founded by Jewish immigrants from Argentina), to create a collection of murals that will describe various facets in the life of the kibbutz.

They have also created a line of artwork, more like sculptures than murals along the short road leading into the central part of kibbutz. This is where I took these two pictures, so you can see the depth of the work. Note the depth of the carving, going through layers of colors (you can click on any image here for a larger version):

And this is the entire surface of the same “image”:

This mural is called “The Kibbutz Family” and it is on the wall leading into the communal dining room. It shows the circle of daily life, starting with the sunrise on the right, and going through to the moonrise on the left:

This fish mural was done just over the back door of the dining room. Very interesting use of divides that manages to “build” a fish and “take it apart” at the same time:

More murals in the kibbutz:

This next one is different in colors and theme. It’s the mural on the kibbutz factory where they manufacture metal nails. It’s well worth clicking for a better view of the details. The artists created a sort of a womb here, bringing together a human embryo and the creation process of the machine.

They even incorporated the actual product - those plates on the right hand are actually made of nails and the metal thingies they make there. Here’s a close-up of that element:

I’ll end with Ron and Dan checking out the mural at the very enterance to the kibbutz, called “Seeding”:

And a closer look at that one - note the depth of the carving again: