Promoting a message of hope
Photo: Meir Partush
Sculpting for peace
Israeli, Palestinian artists present group exhibition at Ramat Gan Museum to focus on bereavement, loss and coexistence, all in support of bereaved families
The Museum of Israeli Art in Ramat Gan will host the exhibition “Offering Conciliation”, a joint art project of Israeli and Palestinian artists in support of the bereaved family forum, starting this week.
The exhibit, which will be on a two-week display at the museum, will feature 135 painters, sculptors and photographers, including Menashe Kadishman, Sigalit Landau, Tsibi Geva, Ron Arad, Igael Tumarkin, David Tartakover, Michal Rovner, Dani Karavan, Osama Zatar, Hannan Abu-Hussein, Gamal Huda, Jalal Kamel, Bothaina Milhem, Philip Rantzer, David Reeb, Moshe Gershuni and Alisa Olmert.
For the exhibit, co-managed by curators Orna Schestowitz-Tamir and Daphna Zmora, artists were requested to cast into an identical ceramic bowl mold creative content that expresses the personal interpretation of each artist towards pain, bereavement and loss, as well as conciliation and the chance for coexistence. Revenues from the exhibit will be used to fund versatile educational activities sponsored by the forum of bereaved families for peace, appeasement and tolerance.
The decorated bowls will be placed on sale at the close of the exhibition on May 17. The exhibit will then tour Israel, the Palestinian Authority and other countries in an effort to promote a message of hope and conciliation, thanks to a USD 100,000 donation by James Wolfensohn, the former special envoy of the Quartet to the Middle East who recently ended his tenure. Among the institutions who have invited the exhibition to show on their premises is the United Nations.
The bereaved families' forum includes Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost family members to the bloody conflict. The “Offering Conciliation” project seeks to communicate a message of hope to both peoples, according to sources at the forum. “The families, who have paid the ultimate price, believe that respectful dialogue that is emphatic to the pain and needs of the other, can stir a change in Israeli and Palestinian awareness and public opinion,” they said. “Greater willingness towards conciliation will lay the groundwork for leaders of both peoples to engage in dialogue, even during these troubling times, and will permit reaching agreements that can be implemented.”
During the two-week exhibition, Israeli and Palestinian student groups will meet at the Ramat Gan museum.
