Netai Halup’s (b.1991) body of work explores the possible performativity that sculptures can manifest. Through the use of organic and industrial materials, he creates precarious compositions in which tension and balance are holding the assemblages in place.
Theatre and poetry take a major role in Halup’s installations, and thus gives context to his sculptural language. The works revolve around the materials’ potentialities to act as “bodies” — as characters — that perform poetic relationships within the installations. The sculptures invite us to experience these relationships in the exhibition space; when the spectators’ bodies are becoming as other protagonists in the sculptural situation. Through the use of touch, tension, and potential movement — a symbolic environment is coming to light.

Tension is a main element in the environments Halup is creating; it may be physical, poetic, or tension as a subject matter. The notion of tension is the common ground that conjoint all the layers in Halup’s work. His practice looks further into how it can be manifested as visual poetry, and how it is expressed through different sculptural events. In that sense, his assemblages investigate the possibility in which precariousness, resistance, subtlety, and tension can appear together as theatrical situations.

Halup’s work has been exhibited in contemporary art galleries around Barcelona such as Galería Carles Tache, Galería àngels, and Espronceda, where he exhibited his solo exhibition as part of ‘Art Nou’ festival 2019. He was one of the finalists in BIG awards 2018 and has won a grant to take part in Nectar AIR program. He founded ‘Pujós Studios’ in 2017, art studios and exhibition space for art and critical thinking. Halup holds an advanced diploma in visual arts from Metafora International Art School, Barcelona. Today, he is based between Tel Aviv and Barcelona.