The centerpiece exhibit at the Eretz Israel Museum (MUZA) is not by an Israeli or even a Jew. However, the art collection by Greek artist Vagelis Kyris blends contemporary photography, traditional embroidery, and MUZA’s Jewish and local costumes to create the collection Thread and Light. The costumes in the collection fuse Jews in the Diaspora, Bedouin, Muslims, and Christians.
Kyris’s unique perspective shows the origins of the costumes and the identities of the people who once wore them, creating a united collection. This was methodically chosen during a time that marks the struggle over individual identity and the lack of social consensus over shared values.
“[It’s] a message to the people for peace, for love. That’s why we don’t only have Jewish costumes; we have some local costumes from Bedouin, from [Palestinians], and from everybody. People can live together in peace and love,” Kyris told The Jerusalem Post.
The exhibit, in the museum’s Jewish Culture and Folklore Pavilion, features costumes that date back to the 18th century and centers on Jewish culture around the world, such as Morocco, Iran, or the Netherlands. With 80 models of men and women, the photos match his iconic style of Renaissance and Baroque-inspired photography.
Kyris is bold and dramatic throughout all of his pieces; within the artwork and outside in his photography, he uses the chiaroscuro technique that balances lights and darks. Then, in a slow and methodical manner, he uses gold, delicate metals, and threads to sew onto the cotton, then uses the showroom as a part of his overall art.
“Vangelis Kyris’s work offers a fascinating encounter between mediums – photography meets embroidery, light meets textile, and portraiture becomes material and tactile,” said Raz Samira, the exhibition’s curator and chief curator of MUZA.
“His unique artistic language brings tradition to the fore… This exhibition speaks not only of the past but of current perceptions of art, craft, and visual identity.”
Crafting detail: From embroidery to emotion
In the gallery, no detail is left to chance. The dark room is illuminated only by the small lights dangling over the heads of each model in the art piece, highlighting the texture of the embroidery.
Eleftheria Deko, an Emmy winner in lighting and design, carefully selects the lights. The music is also carefully selected by Greek composer Dimitris Bakas, who composed individual pieces for each concept. The tone set by the two is dark and dramatic, complementing and capturing the tone of the photography.
Even with the support of Kyris’s large team, it still took up to six months to complete a piece. The research aspect was only one part of the embroidery process, necessary to truly capture the traditional style of craft; the other was the time-consuming process to actually execute the embroidery. The support of other artists was needed to complete a piece.
Embroidery to Kyris also represents the nature of a person as well as a garment’s history, indicating the success of a country, its time, and the symbolic nature of the art. Kyris uses Greece under Ottoman rule as an example: though little art was made, garments that the average person made showed symbols and messages – an inconspicuous art.
“It’s not enough to be a good embroiderer. To do this work, it’s not only the technique of embroidery. You have to understand and feel the pose, because we embroider on a pixel with highlights, with shadow, with everything,” said Kyris.
“If someone is [embroidering] without the talent, to see where the right place to [embroider] is – it’s a disaster.” Though Kyris is not Jewish, he developed a connection to Israel through friends who exposed him to conversations about Jewish life, culture, and religion. Coupled alongside this “treasure,” he calls MUZA’s costume collection and the proximity of Greece and Israel his inspiration, which came naturally to him.
“I feel that there is a connection between the Jewish people and Greek people because we have the same sea, the Mediterranean.”
The exhibit opens on Friday, March 28. eretzmuseum.org.il
