Exhibition 'Beautiful Knowledge'

The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
43 Jabotinsky Street, Jerusalem 9214116, Israel
Curator is Avi Muller (2016)
Wednesday, 29 June, 2016 to Monday, 11 July, 2016
Open Sunday-Thursday 9:00-17:00; Friday 9:00-12:00

The exhibition 'Beautiful Knowledge' opens a window onto the last sixty years of scientific research and creativity of Fulbright program alumni. The purpose is to examine the relationship between knowledge and beauty and to translate that relationship into exhibition settings, screenings and objects.
At the same time, the exhibition is an attempt to assess possible development trends in human knowledge over the coming forty years. In this respect, the exhibition is a process in which –, together with you, the visitors – materials are being curated for a conference that will celebrate Fulbright’s 100th year of activity in 2056.
Based on the forecasts of a variety of scholars and artists, projections of the future of knowledge, technology and art will be deposited in a time capsule. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to try to assess what the world will look like at the time of that future conference, and whether the next generation of researchers will find in it the same beauty.

A Song in a Test Tube

D.N.A. molecules encoding the lyrics of the poem 'Wheat' by the poet Ronny Someck.
Molecular biology enables us to read and synthesize D.N.A. strands at accuracy and cost levels, which make the process affordable to everyone. In a future world Ronny Someck’s poem, which we have translated to D.N.A. molecules, will be read just as easily as we look up text-based data using our smartphones today.

D.N.A. translation: Professor Ehud Cohen and Avi Muller

Wheat

A wheatfield blows on my wife’s head and on
my daughter’s head.
How banal thus to describe blonde
but nonetheless, there grows
the bread of my life.

Translation: Vivian Eden