HANDS SOLO: Pina Bausch by Lee Yanor | CURATED BY Drorit Gur Arie
April 26 - May 24, 2026
ZAZCorner Times Square Billboard, South East Corner of 41st Street and 7th Avenue
PRESENTED “IN BETWEEN” PROGRAMMING
HANDS SOLO: Pina Bausch by Lee Yanor unfolds an intimate vocabulary of movement, where gesture becomes a form of quiet choreography. Centered on the filmed motions of Pina Bausch’s hands, the work distills performance into a sequence that is neither fully dance nor speech. Simple movements form an evolving dialogue, shifting between tenderness, hesitation, force, humor, and memory. Without a defined beginning or end, the piece invites viewers into a continuous present, where expression emerges through rhythm and subtle transformation.
Rooted in Lee Yanor’s interdisciplinary practice across video, film, and photography, the work reflects her sustained engagement with movement as both a physical and philosophical condition. Her approach treats the image as a site where time, memory, and emotion become materially present rather than illustrative. The gestures resist fixed meaning, unfolding as a layered field in which the shy and the explosive, the fragile and the musical coexist. In this sense, HANDS SOLO relates to Henri Bergson’s concept of temporal “duration,” where time and space, past and future, are fused into a continuous present, and where, as in dance, past and future movements remain embedded within each unfolding moment.
Curated by Drorit Gur Arie, whose approach emphasizes the relationship between artistic expression and broader cultural narratives, often situating works within complex social, historical, and geopolitical contexts, the project places the video within the urban environment of Times Square, defined by velocity, scale, and visual saturation. The magnified gestures of the hands operate as a form of intimate communication within a highly public space. Rather than spectacle, the work offers concentration. Rather than message, it offers presence. Here, the moving hands become a suspended dialogue between body and time, allowing public space to momentarily hold nuance, vulnerability, and the quiet complexity of human expression.
Video documentation by Lucas Acher
Night Documentation by ZAZ10TS
I am different from you — I am not different from you in 12 languages invites reflection on difference, belonging, and shared humanity.
About the Artist Lee Yanor
Lee Yanor is a visual artist, filmmaker, and photographer born in Haifa in 1963. She studied at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, Pratt Institute in New York, and Paris 8 University, where she received her MFA. Working across photography, film, and video, her practice explores the image through layered and time based processes. Yanor has exhibited internationally, including at the Israel Museum, Eretz Israel Museum, Center Pompidou, and Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Her film Coffee with Pina, based on her meeting with choreographer Pina Bausch, has been screened at institutions and festivals worldwide, including Sundance, BAM, and the Pompidou Center. She is the recipient of the Coreografo Elettronic Award for Video Dance and the Constantiner Photography Award.
Website: www.leeyanor.com | Instagram: @leeyanor
Photo Courtesy of the Artist Lee Yanor
Drorit Gur Arie is a curator working across contemporary art and cultural discourse, with a focus on multiculturalism and geopolitical contexts. She serves as Chief Curator of Ahad Ha’am 9 Art Gallery in Tel Aviv and of Balcony, an international curatorial network. From 2000 to 2019, she was Director and Chief Curator of the Petach Tikva Museum of Art, where she led its relaunch. She currently heads the Visual Literacy and Curatorship Program at Kibbutzim College. Gur Arie has curated internationally, including at the Mediations Biennial and OSTRALE Biennale, and is the recipient of the Landau Prize for Curatorship.
Website: www.droritgurarie.com | Instagram @droritgurarie
Photo Courtesy of Drorit Gur Arie
Past Projects and Exhibition Highlights
