Ruti Sela, Hugs 2025
Mamuta Art and Research Center, Hansen House, Jerusalem
Curator: Lea Mauas (Sala-Manca)
Opening: Thursday, July 24, 2025, 19:30
In her new exhibition at the Mamuta Center, artist Ruti Sela presents four works exploring the body, interpersonal connection, and technology. The central piece, Hugs 2025, is a reimagining of her first video work, Hugs—a performance piece filmed on the streets of Jerusalem in 1999, in which Sela sought out hugs from strangers. The exhibition reflects on the profound technological, moral, and ethical changes of the past 25 years, while also examining the demographic and political shifts that have shaped Israeli society and Jerusalem over the past quarter century.
The exhibition also features three of Sela's earlier video works:
Hugs (1999, 9 min., no sound): The original video work which initiates the series.
Hugs 2 (2017, 1:30 min.): Hugs 2 captures a birthday ritual in the kindergarten of the artist's son. The children are invited to kiss and hug their classmate as he celebrates his third birthday. The work raises questions on the subject of education, power, and helplessness, both of the filmed subject and of the artist, documenting the event as a mother attending a fixed, recurring ritual.
Therms and Conditions (2022, 1:32 min.): A collaborative video piece with Maayan Amir, filmed through the thermal scope of a weapon (infrared thermography). The work attempts to capture images of residual human heat generated by strangers as they rub their hands on the artists' bodies. Shot on a cold winter night in 2022 during the COVID pandemic, the piece probes the tension between the desire for human closeness and the distancing gaze of the weapon's scope, which obscures and erases the subjects' identities.
Opening Hours: Tuesday & Wednesday 13:00-18:00, Thursday 12:00-18:00, Friday 10:00-14:00
Closing Date: September 26, 2025
Artist Bio
Ruti Sela is an artist born in December 1974 in Jerusalem. She lives and works in Tel Aviv. Her work lies at the intersection of cinema, video art, and performance. Sela documents and explores various systems of power relations, often in the context of law, politics, and sexuality. Her works have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions and festivals both in Israel and abroad. Among the venues and platforms where she has presented her work are the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Bat Yam Museum, and the Center for Digital Art in Holon; the Istanbul Biennial, Berlin Biennale, Biennale of Sydney, and Manifesta; Jeu de Paume and Centre Pompidou in Paris, ZKM in Germany, Mumok in Vienna, Tate Modern in London, and Stedelijk Bureau in Amsterdam. Sela has received several awards, including the Anselm Kiefer Prize from the Wolf Foundation, the Young Artist Award, the Artistic Encouragement Award, and the Award for an Established Video Artist from the Ministry of Culture.