Khlebnikov 100 (1985), Performance. Procession on Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv. First row, first on L (on horseback): Michail Grobman. Second row, R to L (carrying tent): Lena Rabinovich (Lena Zaidel), Mark Kapchitz, Dina Blich. Third row, R to L: Boris Yuhvetz, Ilya Sundelevich, Mara Sundelevich. Photo from Michail Grobman’s website:
https://www.grobman.info/procession-khlebnikov-100-tel-aviv-1985-3/

How I joined the Leviathan Group / Lena  Zaidel (Lena Rabonovich)

Born 1962, Leningrad (St. Petersburg). I have been drawing and painting since my earliest memories, from about age 4. My parents, Olga and Felix Rabinovich, encouraged my love of painting and at an early age took me to “unofficial” art exhibitions (held in private apartments) as well as to museums (The Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum, and more). Since childhood, my parents showed me albums of paintings, read bedtime stories to me from splendidly illustrated books, which I still remember. I attended painting and singing lessons after school, and from the ages of 11-13 (1973-1975) I attended a school of the arts in St. Petersburg until the family left for Israel in January 1976.

In Israel, I studied at the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, where Miriam Tuvia Boneh taught art history (1968-1983). When it was time to choose a subject for my matriculation paper, I told her i wanted to write about unofficial art and dissidents in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and ‘70s. When Miriam heard about my topic, she referred me to the artist Michail Grobman and recommended him as my mentor. I immediately called him up and made an appointment.

I read everything I could about Grobman to prepare for our meeting. Getting to know the Grobmans became an extremely significant and emotional event for me. He was among the very few Russian speakers at the time in Israel who could talk about contemporary art, and who knew all of the artists active in Israel and abroad. I became filled with enthusiasm at the simple language with which he succeeded in analyzing complex issues in conceptual and contemporary art in general, without the slightest trace of snobism. Michail and his wife Ira (Irina Vrubel-Golubkina) welcomed me into their home, helped me in the writing, and we became very good friends. I was so happy and grateful for their friendship. Michail provided me with materials from his archive, as I wrote the paper over an entire year. In 1980 I submitted the final paper to Dr. Miriam Orr for my matriculation, and received a high grade. One copy of my paper remains in Grobman’s archive.

As I continued my writing, I listened with great curiosity to the conversations in the home, about the state of contemporary art, artist/members of the Leviathan Group, the role of the artist in society, and more. When I completed the paper, Michail invited me to join Leviathan. Although I didn’t exactly understand what this meant, I was enthused by Michail’s offer and phrases such as “magic symbolism” and “Jewish mysticism.” I joined the group. This was after the co-founders (with Grobman), artists Avraham Ofek and Shmuel Ackerman, had left. I participated in several exhibitions and performances, among them the performances Messiah (1987), Jerusalem, and Khlebnikov 100 (1985), Tel Aviv, and the exhibition From Symbol to Technology (1982), at the Jerusalem Theatre. After graduation from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, l in 1987, we parted ways for several years, but are still in touch.
During the 1970s and ‘80s, artist Boris Yuhvetz lived near me in Givat Savyon. I loved his works, and studied painting and drawing with him for two years. At one point, I invited my friend Dina Blich, to join the classes. When we decided to apply to Bezalel, our portfolios were from his class. Both of us were accepted…For two years, Boris had been hearing my excited stories about visits to the Grobmans’ home and wanted to meet Michail. One day I simply said to the Grobmans that I was coming over with Boris. Later Dina met them as well. Both joined the Leviathan Group, and participated in several exhibitions and performances after I had already left the group.

In 2010, I had the idea to translate some of Michail’s poems at which I laughed until I cried. Later they were published as the book Liberty Arrives Naked (Tel Aviv: Keshev Lashira, 2013).

Link to a page from Michail Grobman’s book. Hebrew translation by Lena Zaidel: http://www.lenazaidel.co.il/translate-heb.asp?id=7

Futurist Event, Homage to the poet Velimir Khlebnikov


L:
Performance by the Leviathan Group. Khlebnikov 100, (1985). Procession on Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv. First row, R to L: Michail Grobman (on horseback). Second row, R to L: Lena Rabinovich (Lena Zaidel), Mark Kapchitz, Dina Blich. Third row, R to L: Boris Yuhvetz, Ilia Zundelevich, Mara Zundelevich. Photo: Lazar Dranker.
For more photos, see Anticvarium’s websitehttp://anticvarium.ru/lot/show/65730
R: Newspaper clipping from 1985 on the Leviathan Group performance procession: Khlebnikov 100, Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv, with the participation of writers, artists, and a large audience. The drawing and clipping are courtesy of Michail Grobman’s archive.

 

 

Text of the clipping: A Futuristic Event

Khlebnikov, the greatest of the Futuristic poets, has arrived in Tel Aviv. He has wandered for one hundred years throughout the world, surrounded by his comrades: Mayakovsky, Burliuck, Kruchenykh, Malevich. In Tel Aviv he was crowned by the Hebrew writers and the Leviathan Group. The ceremony will take place during the procession that began at Dizengoff Circle and ended at the Zvi Noam Gallery (Levick House), 30 Dov Hoz Street, near the corner of Gordon Street. This happened in early November 1985, beginning at 12 noon.

Participating from the Leviathan Group: Michail Grobman, Boris Yuhvetz, Ilia Zundelovich, Lena Rabinovich, Dina Blich, Mara Zundelevich, Irina Vrubel-Golubkina. Writers: Peretz Banai, Moshe Ben-Shaul, Eli Barbour, Yisrael Bar Kochav, Ami Dickman, Gabriel Moked, Amnon Navot, Roni Somek, Haim Pessah..

“Magical symbolism is a worldview whose foundation is the mystical nature of the powerful forces within the human being. Magic symbolism in art is a method enabling one to approach/come closer to the unreachable/unattainable, part of which is asleep in the human soul. Its function is to convey the human soul over the bridge separating between the material and the spiritual so that the soul can recognize the significance of its earthly existence.” (The Leviathan Group)

The procession took place as part of “Performance 85” (Shefayim, Acre, Tel Aviv), edited by Yigal Bin-Nun.

Translation: Judith Appelton
The Leviathan Group, Messiah (1987). Performance and installation, Hamashbir Square, Jerusalem.
Photo from Michail Grobman’s website: https://www.grobman.info/mikhail-grobman-installation-messiah-1987-jerusalem-2/

 

R to L: First row: Olga Rabinovich (Lena’s mother), Lena Zaidel (Lena Rabinovich)Zlata Grobman (Michail and Ira’s daughter). Second row: Michail GrobmanDina BlichBoris Yuhvetz, Irina Vrubel-Golubkina, 1984, Givat Savyon. Photograph: Felix Rabinovich (Lena’s father)

Selected photographs from the catalog of the Leviathan Group’s exhibition Through symbol to Technology (1982), Jerusalem Theatre

Cover of the exhibition catalog, Through Symbol to Technology
From the exhibition catalog, Through Symbol to Technology
L: Vladimir Yakovlev, Architectural Landscape, gouache on paper
R: List of Leviathan members participating in the exhibition: Vladimir Yakovlev, Michail Grobman, Boris Yuhvetz, Lena Rabinovich (Lena Zaidel), Dina Blich, Ilia Zundelevich,
Lev Nussberg, Grigory Patlas
Michail Grobman, Angel of Death. Choreography: Grigori Patlas. Photo: A. Fogel
L: Boris Yuhvetz, Jacob’s Ladder, gouache on paper.  R: Boris Yuhvetz, Solarium Project, gouache on paper.
L: Dina Blich and Lena Rabinovich (Zaidel), Jacob’s Ladder. R: Dina Blich and Lena Rabinovich (Lena Zaidel), Beginning.  Photo: G. VInitsky
Ilia Sundelevitch, Sign. Photo: N. Sherman. 
L: Grigori Patlas, Pantomime, Photo.        R: Lev Nussberg, Playground project, gouache on paper.  
Curatorial for the exhibition Through Technology to Symbol, by Michail Grobman, exhibition curator and head of the Leviathan Group

Partial list of the Leviathan Group member artists:

Michail Grobman, founder of the Leviathan Group:

 


Irina Vrubel-Golubkina:

 
 
 
Avraham Ofek:
 
 
 
 
Shmuel Ackerman:
 
 
 
Boris Yuhvetz:
 
 
 
 
 
Lena Rabinovich (Lena Zaidel):
 
 
 
 
 

Dina Blich:
 
 
 


Ilia Zundelevich (Sundelevich):

 
 
 
Lev Nussberg:
 
 
 
 
 
Vladimir Yakovlev:
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Leviathan Group [in Russian]

Cover of the poetry book by Michail Grobman,
Liberty Arrives Naked(Haherut Magi’a ‘Eruma)
Translation: Lena Zaidel,
Publishers: Keshev Lashira, Tel Aviv, 2013
Editor-in- Chief: Rafi Weichert
Editor of translation: Oded Zaidel
Afterword: Gilad Meiri
Cover image: Michail Grobman, How children come
into the world (1996/2006), collage
Cover design: Lena Zaidel

Read more about the book Liberty Arrives Naked, on this website:
http://www.lenazaidel.co.il/translate-heb.asp?id=7

Lena and Oded Zaidel at the book launch for Liberty Arrives Naked, Tolaat Sfarim Bookstore, Tel Aviv, June 2013. Photo: Leonid Zeiger
Michail Grobman and Lena Zaidel at the book launch for Liberty Arrives Naked, Tolaat Sfarim Bookstore, Tel Aviv, June 2013. Photo: Leonid Zeiger

From the Book “Moscow – Jrusalem” by Gideon Ofrat. Levin Rress, 2024.
The Artical: Michail Grobman and “Leviathan” (pp.233-231)

The book cover “Moscow – Jerusalem, The Origins of Russian Art in Israeli Art”, by Gideon Ofrat. Levin Press, 2024
From the Book “Moscow – Jerusalem” by Gideon Ofrat. Levin Press, 2024. (pp.231-233)