Casino Ayalon

Curator: Hadas Kedar

Casino Ayalon Staff: Ariel De Lion, Reut Eiron, Moshe Gershon, Hadas Kedar, Alon Schwabe

Graphic Design: Rani Arieli

Bar: Peacock

Event Design: Casino Ayalon Staff

Participating Artists: Dalia Applebaum, Rani Arieli, Yaron Attar, Galia Ben Israel, Ido Barel, Mira Cedar, Ariel Cohen, Dov Druvel, Ayelet Edri, Michal Erez, Ami Faychevitch, Zila Friedman, Maurice Ganis, Jonathan Gold, Moshe Gershon, Fahed Halabi, Orit Hasson Walder, Michal Helfman, Nima Katalv, Freddy Kislev,Sela Koren, Larissa Kuperstein, Veronique Inbar, Ronit Levin Delgado, Tamir Lichtenberg, Eran Nave, Alona Rodeh, Naomi Schick, Shaul Tsemach, Nir Ohion, Avi Sabach, Pesach Slabosky, Galia Pasternak, Tal Yerushalmi, Gil Yafman, Yoav Weiss.

Hostel Ayalon + Bezael MFA Gallery, Tel Aviv - Jaffa

2010, 2011

Casino Ayalon is a participative art installation. The space is transformed into a game where money is replaced by artworks. The space includes a roulette table, entertainers and croupiers dressed in semi-formal uniforms that lead the game. Installed on the walls are 37 numbered art-works. Winners of the game take home the artworks that correspond to their lucky number on the roulette. At the end of the night all the winning artists divide the house jackpot between them equally. In the possibility that an artwork is won by two or more winners, an auction will be announced.

Concept

Casino Ayalon is based on a playful, open-source and collective model for the buying and selling of art. By playing the game of roulette the audience takes on a defining role in the art system market.

Casino Ayalon is not intended to generate high stakes prizes, but rather to instigate a model in which everyone can take part in collecting art. It is up to luck to decide who will end up with what art work. Through many of its unique properties Casino Ayalon brings the thrill of risk and chance to take center stage within the exhibition space and to the act of collecting art. Creating a playful atmosphere of risk taking, the event functions like a continuous loop, where chance is introduced again and again into an event that has its own rules and possibilities

Press

Tel Aviv, 2010 - Hostel Ayalon: Our first Casino Ayalon was held at a mythological rehearsal space from the 70’s in Tel Aviv. Fifty visual artists participated, two musical acts and a theatre collective led the game. More than two hundred participants showed up and the installation gained a mass coverage in all Israeli media, TV: link to video by channel 2/Ynet
Tel Aviv, 2012 - Bezalel Academy of Art and Design M.F.A: After a successful first installation, Bezalel Academy of the Arts embraced the concept and invited Casino Ayalon to occupy the gallery of the MFA program in Tel Aviv. The event and installation were followed by a symposium “Art, Money and Power” held at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (in conjunction with the Union of Visual Artists in Israel) with lectures by the President of Bezalel and researchers from the Department of Sociology and Economics from the Tel Aviv University.

Legality

Prior to the event, the concept of Casino Ayalon was reviewed by an attorney which resulted in the terms that as long as the house doesn’t earn money from gambling, it is considered a legitimate art installation. The house receives income from the bar, entrance fee, auctions during the game and the sale of artworks not in relation to the game.