Andi Arnovitz has garnered an international reputation for her work as artist and curator engaging with issues both universal and Jewish.

In this exhibition, Arnowitz and four other artists address climate change. In the summer of 2018, five Israeli artists took up residence in Venice, a sinking city challenged by global warming. They created works through a uniquely Jewish lens in response to their first-hand experience of the forces threatening this iconic city. Arnovitz has been a friend, inspiration and participant to the Jerusalem Biennale since its inception.

Heaven is All Around Us will take contemporary Jewish art out of the gallery and into the Jerusalem streets. Curators Smith and Kaplan-Wildmann are bringing Jewish street artists to Jerusalem to make their mark on the face of this diverse, complex, old/new city. Exposing their art and themselves to the elements and to the wear-and- tear of daily urban life, street artists offer a particularly refreshing take on where exactly they feel heaven resides.

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The exhibition features objects/installations by designers and artists which explore the visual interface between halakhic literature and the language of contemporary visual/ material culture. The exhibition is a visual response to a famous sugiya in the Talmud on the “Oven of Akhnai” in which the sages ignore divine intervention and declare “Lo Bashamayim He” --that the Torah does not exist in heaven, but is in the flawed but distinctive jurisdiction of man.

This exhibition sheds light on Israel Dahan (b. 1944), a Judaica art professor at the Bezalel Academy for Art and Design, and one of the leading contemporary Judaica artists. In this retrospective, a celebration of Dahan’s retirement from Bezalel in 2018, Dr. Shamir will bring highlights from Dahan’s career in addition to a new work, made especially for the Biennale 2019.

Amit Hai Cohen is a multi-disciplinary artist, who composes and performs music strongly influenced by Arabic and North African music. The exhibition is comprised of both Jewish and Muslim artists, and aims to highlight the historical and contemporary links between individuals and places in Jerusalem and Morocco. The exhibition is not focused on nostalgia alone; it embodies a deep mutual longing of each group for the long parted other.

Yugoslavian-born performance and installation artist, Marina Abramovic has exhibited and taught across the world and now resides in New York. Her pieces are marked by a desire to transform her fears and emotions into startling images that frequently take on ritual or ceremonial forms.
For the Jerusalem Biennale 2019, she brings her work Waterfall (2003), a video projection of 108 images, each showing a Tibetan monk or nun chanting in meditative abandon. Accompanying this is a 'waterfall' of sound filling the space. Commissioned by representatives of the Dalai Lama, the installation is an hypnotic environment of sounds and images.

Smadar Sheffi is an important voice in the Israeli art scene. Author, art critique and curator, she has written a multitude of articles, catalogue essays and gallery texts.
The exhibition contemplates the ultimate question of ‘what art will stand the test of time?’ It includes works of art in a range of media, accompanied by texts--ancient and contemporary-- which isolate the impulses which have propelled the artists -- both famous masters and young up-and-coming artists, to bring their works into existence.

Six secular Israeli and American artists come together to show works inspired by a quote from the Rebbe of Kotzk:
“People are accustomed to looking at the heavens and wondering what is there. It would be better if they looked inside themselves to see what happens there”. According to the teachings of the Kozker Rebbe, honest self-reflection will yield more spiritual growth than lofty speculation.

Independent curator and art consultant, Vera Pilpoul has been active on the Israeli art scene for over a decade, as a gallery director, curator, and producer of visual art exhibitions.
Pilpoul returns to the Biennale with Not in Eden, an exhibition based on Biblical and Talmudic verses, which details how the origin of all work of art lies in the seed that germinates in the artist's mind. The exhibition gathers 12 Israeli artists, working in various media, and seeks to offer a detailed view of the connection between the raw idea and the motivation to manifest it.

An art curator and consultant for nearly two decades, Gargi is co-founder and chief curator of the Indian Art Circle and a fellow at the Ministry of Culture, for researching Kalamezhuthu, an esoteric performing art practice of Kerala.
Gargi’s exhibition Experiments with Truth seeks to explore religious thought through visual arts. It will highlight the similarities between sacred texts from numerous religions within India, and the Jewish Talmud, where differences of opinion are not only tolerated but welcomed. The exhibition will be a collection of paintings, photo installations and sculptures, all created by Indian artists from various faiths.