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The esthetics of Shai Ratner's concrete feeds on the neglected margins of the city. For him, exposed concrete, does not belong to the noble elegance of the architectural Beton Brut, as expressed by Le Corbusier and his contemporaries. Exposed concrete for him is an empty wall, severed from all context, planted in a filthy environment and preserving signs, on its surface, of bodily solitude melted onto it or that has randomly come to be alongside it. Ratner's exposed concrete is a mute and cold wall, far from any symbolic stateliness. The work that he constructed in "Concrete, bulimia" is similarly located in the realm of the margins of the exhibit, at the top of the stairs – not in the main galleries. As a labor-like reminder of the artisan casting of walls from concrete, Ratner has blocked an entire wall, from floor to ceiling, including the window and the lighting element that had been on it. There he placed a wall preparation for casting, constructed of supporting boards and connecting panels. The concrete that was cast into the mold drips and flows outward, beyond the slits. The result corresponds with the language of the high art of abstract painting (particularly the American abstract) as well as with the distinct masculinity of Jackson Pollock and his dramatic acts of ejaculation.

 

text from Concrete, bulimia, weakened strength, Tali Tamir 2014

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