Sculpt a Stranger 

Efrat Zehavi works in public spaces: she talks, listens, asks questions, and slowly gets to know people. As she does, a face takes shape in her hands from clay. In this way, meetings and conversations take on a tangible form. During Rooted festival, that role shifts. Now it’s your turn. How often do you actually speak to a stranger? What holds you back? What would you ask if you found the courage? In Sculpt a Stranger, we invite you to take a seat at a long table, opposite someone you don’t know yet.

Efrat Zehavi (1974) is a visual and performance artist based in Rotterdam. She is known for the expressive portraits in coloured plasticine that she makes on the spot in public locations. Currently, a series of 116 portraits is on view as part of the exhibition All Directions at Fenix Museum of migration in Rotterdam. Efrat draws, sculpts, makes collages and writes short stories based on oral histories. She combines her texts and artifacts in installations, performances, animations and books.

Efrat’s sculptures are painterly and narrative. She works with sculptural media like plasticine, clay, papier-mâché, plaster and wax. With these materials she can shape her feelings and thoughts in the most direct and intuitive way, as if making a quick sketch. Efrat’s sincere sculptures derive their power from the unmistakable imprint of her hand. The sculptures depict a wide variety of characters, from recognisable realistic portraits to theatrical masks, deformed bodies, mythological figures, marionettes, and mascot-like objects, but finally all human forms.

Efrat’s work deals with existential issues like origins, family relationships and migration. She often depicts unpleasant or painful feelings, but she always does so with some humor. Her performative projects rely on audience participation, seeking to provoke a dialogue between strangers. In cafés, libraries, studio-like settings or around a table with ritual objects, she guides the conversation to embrace personal subjects like family history and relationships. In this way many universal emotions and feelings are revealed. The people involved can feel connected with each other regardless of their origin, background or religion.

Following a quote of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh: “Your body is your first home” Efrat encourages you to: “Talk to people you are afraid of, it can be a stranger or your mother…”