Nitzan Satt

Nitzan Satt, an architect and artist by training,tends to engage in architectural spaces and the human conflicts embodied in them. As someone who grow up and was educated on a Kibbutz, she testifies that the alternative definitions of space, in which the private is not private and the public is not public produce within her the need to deal with spatial conventions along side with a constant search after an intimate space. In her work, these are translated into installments that invade the exhibition space and cause physical disruptions and interruptions in the space. Familiar elements from the domestic sphere, such as verandas, windows, doors, panels and doorframes create complex mazes or aggressive buildings that tear apart  and rebuild the balance of power in the space.

In the installment “ How to draw an ideal” Satt confronts  the iconic image of a veranda from the Degania group, a familiar image from the early days of working settlements and a symbol to the culmination of the communal life on the kibbutz. The communal veranda which was built outside the private rooms of the kibbutz  houses, was gnawed at over the years, over and over again by individuals (in the beginning by independent initiatives, and later on with official consent), until it was divided,bordered and often cancelled out of surrender to the human need is of privacy and the definition of residential space. This privatization was done by shifting the cupboard, that stood on the veranda, so that it acted as a barrier between the neighbours sharing the same veranda and created  a sort of private enterance. The installment focuses on the moment in which the human’s need is not consistent with  with the ideal.