Sunday 01 July 2007 9:33:53 pm

Artists to Take Over the Separation Wall in Israel and Palestine

• International project, Challenging Walls, to arrive in Israel/Palestine for the first time as part of the Jerusalem Film Festival
• On July 11-12, the separation wall will become a screen for eight giant multimedia presentations projected on both sides of the separation wall at Abu Dis.
• The art installations will be presented by renowned artists from Germany, Ireland, Cyprus, Israel and Palestine who personally experienced life next to separation walls

The international project "Challenging Walls -- Life beyond the Walls," is a unique artistic project conceived in Germany and belongs to Walkscreen, including artists from Germany, Cyprus, North Ireland, Israel and Palestine. The project was initiated by Israeli artist Ruthe Zuntz, German artist Michael Reitz and Israeli architect Anat Moshe, whose vision is to bring Israelis and Palestinians on both sides of the physical and mental wall into a real dialogue.

Sixty meters of the separation wall at Abu Dis will turn into a screen on which eight displays of still photographs will be projected simultaneously on both sides of the wall. The 20-minute display of 640 life-size photographs will portray the daily lives of people on opposite sides of the walls in four countries with histories of walls. In the end, the two sides—Palestinian and Israeli, Jew and Arab, the occupier and the occupied—will be indistinguishable.

Israelis and Palestinians will watch the presentation at the same time on their respective sides of the wall. Al Quds University will be brining hundreds of Palestinians from near by communities to the area to watch the presentation at Abu Dis.

According to Ruthe Zuntz "the goal of the project is to draw attention to the lives of the people on either side of the wall. If we succeed in removing the mental walls between the two sides, we will be able to overcome the fear and despair that separate the two peoples, as well as the physical wall itself."

The photographers participating in this unique initiative are Sibylle Bergmann (Germany), Christopher Heaney (Ireland), Nicolas Iordanou (Cyprus), Kadir Kaba (Cyprus), Frankie Quinn (Northern Ireland), Michael Reitz (Germany), Steve Sabella (Palestine), and Ruthe Zuntz (Israel). The exhibition in Israel serves as the grand international launch of Challenging Walls which is expected to come to Berlin, Germany in 2008.

This project is funded by the European Commission's EU Culture 2000 and in cooperation with the following institutions: European Cultural Foundation, German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations - Zivik Project, INDEX (Cyprus), University of Ulster (Northern Ireland), Akademie der Kuenste (Germany), Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Jerusalem Film Festival (Israel), Jerusalem Cinematheque, Al Quds University (Palestine), Shenkar College (Israel), Jerusalem Foundation (Israel), German Embassy in Israel, Goethe-Institut Jerusalem and Goethe-Zentrum Nicosia.
On Wednesday, July 11, 16:30-21:00, a conference on "Walls, separation and cultural representation" will be held at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. The work of four teams (comprised of photographers, researchers, curators and cultural directors), who collaborated together to share the realities and the hope of people who live their daily lives in divided places, will be presented at the conference.

Busses available for conference participants and the general public on Wed., July 11, 21:00 at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, 11 Jabotinsky St, and on Wed., July 12, 19:00 and 20:30 from the David Citadel Hotel, on Yitzhak Kariv St., Jerusalem. It will not be possible to reach the site independently.

http://www.challengingwalls.eu

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