REDDEN

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Redden: Omer Sheizaf

The title “Redden” implies the ambiguity of the name Mars in Hebrew (Ma’adim), which denotes both the red planet, potentially considered a safe haven for humanity, and the verb “reddens”—blushes, turns red (the color of the eros of love and war).

On Earth, “Mars Analogues” are environments used to simulate the physical, geological, and environmental conditions of the planet Mars for astronaut training. Israel’s Ramon Crater is a prominent international site for these simulations. Just as the Mars analogue transforms the desert into a performative set where astronauts rehearse life elsewhere, Sheizaf transforms the museum into a space of alternative refuge: Mars as a substitute for Earth, and the city’s periphery as an alternative to its center.

In this exhibition, Mars becomes an alternative state of consciousness: the prospect of escape, the distant planet where humanity might find shelter once Earth’s resources are exhausted. But it is also the young man whose face reddens at a stolen glance in the nighttime bustle. Sheizaf’s Mars inhabits these invisible frontiers: the city’s margins, half-lit streets, flickering signs, street corners, and motorcycle headlights. It is a meditation on a crimson planet imagined by someone walking those streets.

“Redden” is an immersive installation designed specifically for the circular space of the Bat Yam Museum of Art. The work choreographs light, sound, sculpture, and theatrical elements into a synchronized ecosystem—a sensory and emotional environment born of our current zeitgeist, centered on the search for an alternative. 

Within this environment, Sheizaf lays out his spiritual and earthly experiences with and against light and darkness. In a disenchanted and overlit world, he seeks to restore something of the magic that has been stripped away. It is a form of secular mysticism that acknowledges the role of the magician and the theater: everyone knows it is a trick, a conjuring act, and yet it awakens our critical senses.

Curator:Adi Dahan