Sigalit Landau discusses her salt sculptures and video installations in the context of Between Worlds, her recent solo exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Amsterdam:

 

 

Sigalit Landau, born in Jerusalem in 1969, is an interdisciplinary artist who works with installation, video, painting, photography, and sculpture. Between 1990 and 1995, she studied Art at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. During this time she also attended Cooper Union in New York City. She currently lives and works in Israel.
Landau’s complex works touch on social, historical, political, and ecological issues, embracing topics such as homelessness, banishment, the relationships between victim and victimizer, and between decay and growth. As much of her work is concerned with the human condition, the body (often her own) is a key motif and guide.
In 1994, Landau’s work was included in two ArtFocus 1 exhibitions. This early work dealt with notions of nomadism and place. In one, she inhabited a homeless shelter; in the other, she created a castaway group show on the water breakers in front of Bugrashov beach.
In 1995 she showed her work Iron Door Tent with Guy Bar Amoz at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
In 1996 Landau exhibit at the “Witte de With”. Following her Rotterdam experience, Landau made and showed Resident Alien I the following year in the Herzliya Museum, and after that in Documenta X and at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997. Landau would represent Israel a second time at the Biennale in 2011.
In 1999 Landau exhibited her work in the Chisenhale Gallery, London, and then at Spacex in Exeter. The following year, she won the first Times/ArtAngel open commission: to transform a concrete mixer into a music box. She states that she had every intention of “living in it forever and travelling with the story performed with it in the streets…”.
In her 2001 New York City Exhibition, Sigalit turned the Thread Waxing space into a cotton candy crater, spinning the sweet fibres around herself and the audience, to the music of “Arab-Snow”.
Returning to Israel during the outburst of the Second Intifada, she worked with front pages of the Haaretz newspaper, transforming them each day into sculptures of fruit that would become the principal material for her installation The Country (2002) at the Alon Segev Gallery in Tel Aviv-Yafo.
In 2004 she opened The Endless Solution at the Tel Aviv Museum.
In The Dining Hall (2007) at Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, she made a chain of installations dealing with private, communal, and public food, feeding and starving. Culminating in a monumental public sculpture of bloody doner kebabs dedicated to the Turkish kebab carvers in the streets of Germany.
In 2008 she exhibited Project 87 at MOMA.
In 2008 her work Salt sails + Sugar knots was shown at Kamel Mennour, Paris.
In 2012 she showed her work Caryatid at The Negev Museum of Art, Beersheva, Israel.
In 2015, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona featured a semi-retrospective of her work.
In 2019 she showed her work Salt Years at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. Salt Years is perhaps Landau’s best-known work; it consists of salt sculptures created by immersing metal armatures into the Dead Sea.
In 2022, Landau’s work on the Dead Sea was featured in a major retrospective at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
In 2024, a selection of Landau’s series Salt Crystal Bridal Gown was included in The Dybbuk. Phantom of the lost world at the mahJ in Paris.
Among many other recognitions, Landau was conferred the title of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, an Honorary Associate degree from the Open University of Israel (2019), and an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem (2020). 

​2019  Honorary Doctorate degree from The Open University of Israel
2017  Honorary Doctorate degree from the Ben Gurion University of the Negev
2017  Chevalier, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France
2016  The Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
2015  Terra Summer Residency advisor, Giverny, France
2011  Artis Grant Recipient
2007  Dan Sandel and the Sandel Family Foundation for Sculpture Award, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
2004  The Beatrice S. Kolliner Award for Young Israeli Artists, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
2004  The Nathan Gottesdiener Foundation Israeli Art Award, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
2003  The America-Israel Cultural Foundation Jannette and George Jaffin Scholarship
2003  ‘IASPIS’ Residency, Stockholm
2001  Acquisition Prize, Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv
2001  Young Artist Award, Ministry of Science, Culture and Education
2000  Winner of the ArtAngel/Times commissions 2000 competition, London
1999  Artist-in-residence at the Hoffmann Collection, Berlin
1998  The Ingeborg Bachman Scholarship, established by Anselm Kiefer, Wolf Foundation
1994  America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship; Mary Fisher Award, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem
1993  Sculpture Award, The Jewish National Fund (USA)

2022  The Burning Sea, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
2021  The Heart and the Fountain, Hezi Cohen Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2021  Olive to Olive, Rubin Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
2021  Between Worlds, The Jewish Museum, Amsterdam
2021  Salt of the Earth and the Bride of the Sea, Givat Haviva Art Gallery
2020  Green Scream, Natan Zach, Gallery Har-El, Tel Aviv
2019  Salt Years, The Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria
2019  Sigalit Landau: Sea Stains, Dwek Gallery, Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem
2019  Growth & Change, Roe Green Gallery, Jewish Federation of Cleveland, Ohio
2019  Lot’s Wife, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv-Jaffa
2016  Miqlat, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme, Paris
2016  Salt Bride, Marlborough Contemporary, London
2016  Sorrow Grove, Wiener Festwochen, Vienna
2015  Sigalit Landau, Hezi Cohen Gallery, Tel-Aviv
2015  Better Place, cellule516, Marseille
2015  Snow in Jerusalem, Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto
2015  Shelter, 2012, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montreal
2014  Phoenician Sand Dance, MACBA, Barcelona
2014  Knafeh, Marlborough Contemporary, London
2014  Moving To Stand Still, Koffler Centre of Fine Arts, Toronto
2013  The Ram in the Thicket, Maison Hermes in Ginza, Tokyo
2013  Margin, Mucsarnok, Kunsthalle Budapest
2013  Olives, Tromso Kunstforening, Tromso
2012  Caryatid, The Negev Museum of Art, Beersheba
2012  Infinite Games, Solyanaka Gallery, Moscow
2012  Soil Nursing, Kamel Mennour Gallery, Paris
2012  Angel Laundry, Givon Art Gallery, Tel-Aviv
2012  One man’s floor is another man’s feelings, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah
2011  One man’s floor is another man’s feelings, Israeli Pavilion, 54th Biennale, Venice
2008  Salt sails + Suger knots, Kamel Mennour Gallery, Paris
2008  Projects 87, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York City
2008  Salame/ Herzel: Views from Tel-Aviv South, Tel Aviv
2007  The Dining Hall, Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
2006  Sherman Galleries, Sydney
2005  Carcel de Amor, Relatos culturales sobre la violencia de genero, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid
2005  Treading Water, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa
2005  The Endless Solution, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
2005  Bauchhaus 04, (performance), The Armory Show, New York City
2002  The Country, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv
2002  Video and zoetrope installation, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
2001  Thread Waxing Space (installation), New York City
2000  Somnambulin-Station 1, (sonic performance piece), Spacex Gallery, Exeter
1999  The Natives are Restless, New Work UK, Chisenhale Gallery, London
1997  Resident Alien II, The Israeli pavilion to the Venice Art Biennial
1997  Resident Alien I, Documenta X, Kassel
1996  VoorWerk 5, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam
1995  Temple Mount, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Julia Stoschek collection, Düsseldorf
Generali Foundation
Museum der Moderne Salzburg
Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, Magdeburg
George Pompidou Center, Paris
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
The Jewish Museum, New York City
The Brooklyn Museum, New York City
Magazine 3, Stockholm
Museo De Arte Contemporàneo De Castilla Y Len Musak, Leòn
Museos Archivos y Bibliotecas, City of Madrid
MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York City
MACBA, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona
MOCAK, Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow

2018  Nava Sevilla-Sadeh, ”Les rites de passage: Ritual, Initiation and the State in Works by Sigalit Landau and Anisa Ashkar”,  Visual Resources
2015  Nava Sevilla-Sadeh, “The Arena of Thanatos: Psuché, Soma and Sigalit Landau’s Body Representation – a Comparative Study”, Journal of Aesthetics & Culture
2008  Leslie Camhi, “Centrifugal Force: Unraveling the art of Sigalit Landau”, Tablet Magazine, June
2001  Roberta Smith, “Sigalit Landau”, New York Times, June 1
2003  Phillip Leider, “Report from Tel Aviv; Israel’s Guernica”, Art in America, May
2001  Charles LaBelle, “Sigalit Landau”, Frieze, October
1999  Richard Cork, “Anatomy of a Winner”, The London Times, May 7
1996  Rotterdam Witte de With, October
1996  Jean-Fran Çois Chevrier, “Sigalit Landau”, Center for Contemporary Art

2020  Sigalit Landau Green Scream, Har-El Printers & Publishers, Jaffa
2019  Sigalit Landau Salt Years, Hatje Cantz
2015  Phoenician Sand Dance, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona
2012  aryatid, The Negev Museum of Art
2011  Sigalit Landau – One man’s floor is another man’s feelings, Éditions Kamel Mennour, Paris
2011  100 Years of Israeli Art, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
2010  Signs of Life, Kunstmuseum Luzern
2008  Sigalit Landau, Hatje Cantz
2008  Eventually We’ll Die: Young Art in Israel of the ’90s, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art
2007  Going Staying: Movement, Body, Space in Contemporary Art, Hatje Cantz
2005  Dreaming Art Dreaming Reality, Nathan Gottesdiener Foundation, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
2004  The Endless Solution, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
2002  The Country, D.K. GraubArt & Spartizan
1997  Friction: I-body, I-language, I+you, The Venice Biennale /The Ministry of Education