works in an interdisciplinary way at the interface of painting, sculpture, video, performance and dance. He originally wanted to study fashion design, but consciously decided to study fine arts in Jerusalem, Glasgow and Tel Aviv in order to gain greater freedom in his artistic expression.
A consistent motif in Gili Avissar’s practice is his textile works. Using weaving, knotting and patchwork techniques, he combines predominantly recycled materials to create expansive installations in which textile beings and fantastical creatures are often an integral part. These colorful structures develop a life of their own: they move between human, animal and plant and open up a variety of approaches to transformation, movement and metamorphosis for the audience. The artist often uses his own body as a medium, so that individual works also serve as costumes for videos and performances. In recent years, he has regularly collaborated with performers, dancers and choreographers, whereby his works are reinterpreted in dance and theater productions and transformed into stage and costume design.
Gili Avissar’s site-specific interventions in outdoor spaces forge close links between material and nature. Organic growth and environmental impulses are reflected in strands, knots and interweavings, to which Gili Avissar responds with exuberant combinations of color and line. The result is an ongoing dialog between material, space and nature that challenges the perception of boundaries, movement and interaction and opens up new perspectives on the interplay between the human and non-human world for the viewer.