Helm of Hades

Exhibition at Tel Aviv Museum of Art 

Curated by Ruth Direktor

In Greek mythology, the Helm of Hades granted its wearer invisibility. Among those who donned it were Athena, Perseus—who used it to evade the Gorgons after slaying Medusa—and Hermes, the swift messenger of the gods. This audio walk follows in the footsteps of other invisible beings: microbes, the unseen inhabitants of both our internal spaces and external environments.

Accessible through a web app, participants navigate the experience via their cell phones, guided by the artist’s voice through headphones. They are led to track these microorganisms—creatures essential to life yet often regarded with revulsion. The museum, a space meticulously maintained for sterility, becomes the perfect stage for this exploration. It highlights both the omnipresence of microbes and the ongoing battle to expel them from the museum’s carefully controlled systems.

Borrowing from the familiar format of museum audio tours, this walk redirects attention to the unspoken realities of institutional preservation: the museum as a sealed climate-controlled bubble, the extensive efforts to maintain sterility for the sake of its artifacts, and the inherent tension between the museum’s dual roles—preserving art while welcoming visitors. Yet, the presence of living, breathing bodies introduces an unavoidable paradox: each visitor carries countless bacterial cells, blurring the boundary between conservation and contamination.

Rather than focusing on the museum’s curated displays, the audio walk unfolds in its liminal spaces—areas where this unresolved conflict between sterility and life is most palpable.