ISRAEL: Streetart Tel Aviv - Derech Menachem Begin 23 - Brazilian Embassy - Hand in Hand - ALANDER ESPECIE

75 years of diplomatic relations between Brazil and Israel

A new mural has recently been created at the Brazilian Embassy in Tel Aviv, painted by the Brazilian-Israeli artist ALANDER ESPECIE — a work that marks an important milestone in the artist’s creative journey and in the cultural connection between Brazil and Israel. The mural is part of the celebrations commemorating 75 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, and it expresses a shared language between the two cultures, much like the artist’s own identity.

ESPECIE, who was born in Rio de Janeiro and has lived in Israel since 2016, has been creating art — including monumental works in public spaces — for over a decade. His work blends dialogue between textile, painting, urban installations, and collage. His visual language is intuitive and sensorial, expressing a deep connection to his cultural and spiritual roots, while maintaining an accessible and inviting pluralistic aesthetic. The decision to commission ESPECIE for this monumental mural at the Brazilian Embassy in Israel underscores the important role of art as a tool for cultural connection — a bridge between the two nations. The mural was carefully selected to represent this unique bridge between both peoples.

The mural’s naïve style and strong, dominant color palette reflect the energy and vibrancy of Brazil. Each field of color contains a meaningful word carrying cultural, social, or identity-based significance: „Am Yisrael Chai“ (The People of Israel Live), „Family“, „Children“, „Creator“, „God“, „Ethics“, „Freedom“, „Thanks“, „Equality“, „Diversity“, „Love“, „Peace“, and more. These words, written in Hebrew, Portuguese, and sometimes phonetic blends of both, are not merely textual elements conveying information — they are also part of a folk-art composition that merges text and visual imagery to generate meaning through the union of contrasts.

ESPECIE’s choice of words highlights shared values between Brazil and Israel, as well as ideals to aspire to — values of brotherhood, equality, and peace, which gain even greater relevance in today’s world — a time marked by political and cultural challenges.

Text by RON BARTOSZ, Curator and Collections Manager at the Negev Museum of Art, Israel

Additional Artworks by ALANDER ESPECIE – Burn, Pray, Bleed

Collages created during the 12-day war against Iran in June 2025 — where trauma, mysticism, and poetic resistance converge. In this new series of collages, ALANDER ESPECIE deepens his visceral exploration of psychoart, forging a liminal space where trauma, spirituality, and poetic disobedience collide. Created during the recent 12-day war against Iran — a time marked by sirens, airstrikes, human loss, and forced displacement — these works weave a hybrid visual language in which the street, the unconscious, and mystical codes converge into a polyphonic cry.

Using Hebrew newspapers, local flyers, torn photographs, portraits of fallen soldiers, hand-drawn phonetic texts, and ancestral symbols, Espécie constructs layered surfaces where historical and ritual time collapse. Hebrew script is fragmented, redrawn, and re-enchanted; Portuguese and English are interrupted by intuitive interference; the body is dismantled and reassembled in compositions that echo ex-votos, prayers, and laments.

A raw spiritual current pulses throughout — charred faces covered in blessings, eyes hidden by sacred letters, words like “Shema,” “Kush,” “Porque,” and “Next” shining like mantras or survival codes. Amidst this symbolic and sensorial war, figures such as the boy-soldier, the healing flame, and ancestral memory arise as acts of resistance and reinvention.

These are not mere visual compositions — they are psychic testimonies. They trace the emotional landscape of an artist who lives within the war but refuses silence. Alander moves between art and psychotherapy, between denunciation and enchantment, mourning and language. This series is a reliquary of urgent images — burning, praying, and bleeding.

Curated and written by LEA DANOVICH – Art Writer & Independent Curator. Specialist in Trauma Aesthetics, Spiritual Symbolism & Contemporary Latin American Art