Shay Zilberman & Aviv Lichter, 15 septembre – 4 octobre 2025.
ETERNAL / EPHEMERAL / Extraire l’éternel de l’éphémère. Charles Baudelaire.

“Extraire l’éternel de l’éphémère” Charles Baudelaire During our residency at the Centre for Artist Books, we aim to produce a new series of works culminating in an artist’s book and a graphic visual lexicon, based on visual research in the area. We will initiate our residency with a period of research, engaging in daily strolls around the area to gather eclectic visual materials with ephemeral qualities that reflect the essence of the place. Our focus will be on collecting everyday items such as storefront signage, wrapping papers and paper bags, napkins, labels from local drinks and food establishments, restaurant menus, packagings from artisanal workshops etc. These ephemeral raw materials, which offer a unique image of the area, will serve as a portrait encapsulating its history, aesthetics, cultural characteristics, and traditions. They will be recorded, collected, cataloged, and preserved in a graphic lexicon, creating an imagined local atlas. Concurrently, we plan to create an individual artist book in an album format. This will feature a series of new abstract works, both planned and spontaneous, crafted from the disassembly and reassembly of the collected materials. The compositions will reflect various elements such as color schemes, graphic and conceptual forms, routes traveled during our stay, and the unique topography of the area. The fusion of abstract and ready made elements will anchor the artwork within a contemporary as well as the traditional, geographical-historical, and cultural contexts. The proposed artist’s book will also evoke the tradition of travel diaries, capturing the memory of images created through movement, wandering, and collecting. As a creative duo sharing a common living and working space, this residency will offer us a fresh environment for research and creative play, enabling us to collaborate once again. It will also provide the time and opportunity to re-examine the intersections between our respective working fields.