« A cultural Dialogue » Project 2

Magen Avraham Centre, Jaffa
Artists Ophira Avissar (visal artist); Shmoulik Matalon (actor)

The adolescents (14 to 18 years old) who frequent the Magen Avraham youth centre in Jaffa are all Arab teenagers, living in poor environment, many of them at risk. With no proper care, family structure, nor homes of their own they live at the extreme margins of the society
This project seeks to emphasize the various cultural and religious differences and complexities encountered by Muslims and Christians Arabs in Israel. Via the arts and artistic creation, both visual and theatrical, the workshop deals with questions concerning the sentiment of nationality, feelings of belongings, choice of language, possible future.
Through dialogue, conversation, and artistic creation, the participants are lead to deal, in a different way, with the society issues which preoccupies youth in general and their specific social, economical milieu in particular.
Being in the middle of our project these days, here also we are amazed to see the thirst of the teenagers for a meaningful activity. Young boys are more than willing to embroider a “bead” for the chain of art. They listen carefully, and sincerely do their best.
At the end of the project, an exhibit of their works is planned in the youth club, before the sending of the works to the international exhibition in Paris.
We are really moved to see real and useful fruits to our work.

“An intergenerational dialogue”

Golomb Elementary School, Neve Eliezer, south east of Tel-Aviv.
Elderly Centre in Neve Eliezer managed by the municipality of Tel-Aviv.
Artists : Ophira Avissar (visual artist); Shmoulik Matalon (actor)
The main issue of this workshop is to investigate the possibilities of common creation and interaction between two categories of persons in the boundaries of the society, living close to each other in the same neighbourhood.
The project brings together school children from an elementary school and retired people from an elderly centre nearby.

The Golomb school gathers children from various quarters in the south of Tel-Aviv. The chose group is composed of 12 6th grade children with obsessive compulsive disorder, who are considered in « school failure ». The group is correlated with 6 aged persons from the Neve ELiezer elderly centre located in the same neighbourhood.
The idea of merging is expressed in more than one way: it is a merging of artistic techniques, of different kinds of people and also between two artistic disciplines.
The children and their aged guests are creating together chains of art works. We are now heading towards our ninth meeting (out of ten) and we are moved to see the development of friendship and mutual understanding, as well as learning and listening together, and even… recognizing sentiments of pleasure and pride in and out of their work.

Once the workshop is over, after the last meeting, we will organize an exhibition of the works at the elementary school, to which the aged people will be invited to bring members of their families and friends to visit.
For us, artists, this is an exciting encounter and a wonderful way of creating “chains” in some small alienated society of our time…

Dheisheh Camp Social Youth Center

Handala, the Palestinian defiance symbol...

Handala is the most famous of Naji al-Ali's characters. He is depicted as a ten-year old boy, and appeared for the first time in Al-Siyasa in Kuwait in 1969. The figure turned his back to the viewer from the year 1973, and clasped his hands behind his back.

The artist explained that the ten-year old represented his age when forced to leave Palestine and would not grow up until he could return to his homeland; his turned back and clasped hands symbolized the character's rejection of "outside solutions". Handala wears ragged clothes and is barefoot, symbolizing his allegiance to the poor. In later cartoons, he sometimes appears throwing stones or writing graffiti.

Handala became the signature of Naji al-Ali's cartoons and remains an iconic symbol of Palestinian identity and defiance; the artist remarked that "this being that I have invented will certainly not cease to exist after me, and perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that I will live on with him after my death".

The young people, future artists ? and the artist Rania !

Some presentations of all...

Welcome to all and to everybody !

While the various artistic workshops have begun at the moment in Turkey, Israel-Palestine, Germany and France, here is finally our space of exchange beyond the borders ! This is our common blog which is built by the contribution of every participant.
Some short presentations...

From Turkey, thanks to Alp (director of D-Atelier), two schools from Odtü and Türk Eðitim Derneði of 12 and 13 students are with us. Their workshop has started since december 2008. An other group of 5-6 childrens from D-Atelier will join us.
Two groups from Kale region (near from Ankara) : 7 students of 9-10 and 7 students of 11-13 years old.
We will have the pleasure to welcome two groups of women during March : from Çankaya municipality and D-Atelier.

From Israel-Palestine, the young people from camp of Dheisheh make live the blog. The young people from towns of Julis and Eilat are also invited. And maybe others !

From Germany, to Frankfort, the class 'Art and Design workshop' of Anna Schmidt High School and the 20 students of 14-19 years old give their contributions. They work on the idea of metissage and reinterpretation of past and present.
One group from Stuttgart is followed by Juliane.
And from the town of Odenwaldschuler, 18 students of 15-16 years old will share with us their project.

And from France, in Paris and near region, four classes participate,
- 33 students of Colbert High School built, with the artists Elisa (writing) and Estelle (photo-video), a dialogue between pictures and writings to make live cultural diversities. Research of identity and metissage of memories.

- Students of 11-12 years old of Jean Bullant secondary school create identity cards with the help of the plastic artists Clothilde and Isabelle. They ask for their origins and their imaginaries.

- One project intituled 'Arborescence' is developed by a class from Liberté secondary school : with researches in historic documents, the students work on the different symbolic representations and their connections. These symbols can become reference for identity. Every student will can express themselves by photography or plastic arts with the artists Bernadette and Marion.

- And a class from Marie Curie secondary school, young peoples of 13-15 years old introduce their project intituled 'Un autre moi' : they imagine an other way of life with a collectiv material : the ancestral myths which found our collectiv history. Their tools are slam (with the artist Isabelle) and drawing (with the artist Nativ).

Later, we expect for the contribution of a group of women from Maison du Bas Belleville.

You can add some precisions about your works to exchange all together !
And now, let us leave place with the creation ...