Matan Ben-Tolila / Cat Steps

Opening: 05/03/2021   Closing: 05/05/2021    Curator: Yonatan Ullman

Cat steps, 2020, Oil on canvas, 170x106cm
Omer, 2020, Oil on canvas, 150x150cm
צולל (דיפטיך) 65+95 סמ כל אחד 2021
40x40 cm, oil on canvas, 2021
150x150 cm. oil on canvas, 2021
80x60 cm, oil on canvas, 2021
80x60 cm, oil on canvas, 2021
140x112 cm, oil on canvas, 2019
The visit, 165x120 cm, oil on canvas, 2019
Circles (no2), 165x120 cm, oil on canvas, 2019
in sea, 160x100 cm, oil on canvas, 2019
Circles 4, 110x80 cm, oil on canvas, 2019

Cat Steps / Matan Ban-Tolila – press releae

In another place / Yonatan Ullman
Far away from here lies an endless, wonderful, enchanted, mysterious, dark space.
I am drawn there every time anew.
It’s addictive.
When I am there, here does not exist.
When I am here, I think about returning there.

There is freedom there.
Freedom to wander.

Tigers roam free.

A cave.
A vortex.
A portal.
A passage.

I peek through the gap in my camouflage net.
On the other side an unmanned plane is revealed.
Sometimes I imagine I was it.
Drifting.
Somewhere.
Above and beyond.
Cruising.
Absolute silence.
I’m upside-down.
The canopy is like coordinates.
Directing.
Centering.
Orienting.
Anything is possible.
I send a signal to my home base – can anyone hear me?
Where to now?
Deeper.
Further.
Surprising, thrilling, stunning.
Beyond knowledge or understanding.
Careful!
Not too far.
You may never return.
But, the temptation is so great.
How much beauty lies here.

Then… I am back here.

At night, I gaze beyond the window.
I can hear our world – full of life, vitality, motion.
Banal althea flowers, which I passed by thousands of times while driving,
become a phenomena.
Dancing with the moon that drifts through the dark skies.
Growing slowly.
Ever closer to each other.
Striving for contact.
How much beauty is in them.