Exhibition: "Bunkov + Sooster/Common Denominator"

A joint exhibition by Sergei Bunkov and Tenno Pent-Sooster at the Gallery on the Cliff in Netanya brings together three themes: the project “Sooster and Bunkov’s Jewish Letters” and individual exhibitions by each of the artists, including works that have never been exhibited before.

At the center of the exhibition are 22 Jewish letters and 22 artistic images.

Here, the letters become a starting point for a conversation about Jewish culture and tradition. The works intertwine symbols of Kabbalah and Jewish holidays, gematria, and the artists’ personal associations and fantasies. This is a contemporary view of the Hebrew alphabet not only as a writing system, but also as one of the oldest ways of making sense of the world.

The project refers to the Kabbalistic Sefer Yetzirah—the “Book of Creation,” according to which letters form the basis of the universe. At the same time, old printing techniques are combined with 21st-century technologies: thanks to Maxim Bunkov’s AR animation, the images come to life in augmented reality.

Here, AR is not merely a visual effect, but a bridge between history and the present. If the world was created with the help of letters, technology today helps us see their meanings anew.

Tenno Pent-Sooster is an artist and animator, and the son of the renowned Estonian artist Ülo Sooster. His works have been exhibited in Russia, Estonia, Israel, and Ukraine, including at the Artists’ House in Tel Aviv, the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, the Moshe Castel Museum, and the Museum of the Bible Lands in Jerusalem.

Sergei Bunkov is an artist who has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Israel, the United States, Russia, and Ukraine. His works have been presented at the Museum of Israeli Art in Ramat Gan, the National Museum of Freedom in the United States, the Eretz Israel Museum, the Ralli Museum, the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, and the Museum of the Bible Lands.

The exhibition offers an opportunity to see what common ground two different artists find in letters, images, memory, tradition, and contemporary art.