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A trail is a line drawn through a landscape. It marks a direction, creates a boundary, and makes an otherwise invisible path visible. Yet every marked trail also leaves something unmarked — a space beyond the line, where what appears separate can coexist.

The Hidden Trail explores this space between opposites: between light and darkness, presence and disappearance, memory and the present. It is a space where boundaries become less certain, and where what seems to be two separate ends may reveal itself as one underlying whole.

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The Landscape Behind the Work: One of the formative chapters in Ruti Frankel’s life was her work as a jeep driver for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, alongside Ori Dvir, the visionary and initiator of the Israel National Trail. Immersed in the landscapes of the Judean Desert and the Negev, and working alongside some of the trail’s earliest markers, she spent long periods in the field, allowing herself to become part of the landscape. This experience became an important part of the way she sees and engages with the world. Later, during visits to India as a photographer documenting the world of yoga, her interest deepened in the relationship between human beings and nature. From Documentation to Abstraction The works in the exhibition draw on photographs and visual materials captured along the Israel National Trail during Frankel’s years of working in the field. Through digital manipulation, video, and abstraction, these fragments of landscape are transformed into new visual territories. The familiar becomes uncertain; a trace becomes an image; a landscape becomes something that exists somewhere between memory and perception. “My work moves between documentation and abstraction, seeking to reveal within the familiar layers and images that are not visible at first glance.” Ruti Frankel