Discussing the 1959 Wadi Salib protest, HaOlam HaZeh editor Uri Avnery wrote: "Look at the cover photo. What does it remind you of? A historical image of the American Revolution or the storming of the Bastille? The Hungarian Uprising? This is no coincidence. Images have a language." Indeed, images have a language, as does the body, and these languages reproduce themselves in various acts of protest and resistance, with clenched fists raised in the salutatory gesture of the workers' struggle, a flag hoisted in the air, and faces suffused with anger. As in a pre-written play, every protest movement leads to a counter-movement, whether a counter-protest or police enforcement. The choreography of resistance is thus a dance of steadfastness and retreat, swinging fists for struggle or in self-defense.
The exhibition juxtaposes three works by international artists delving into the universal characteristics of the gestures of the protesting body, with four series of photographs from four significant protests in local history. Each photographic series has a unique temporal and spatial context, attesting to changes in the dissemination of photography and its technology. Together, they touch on the timeless qualities of being citizens, whose bodies contain the power to resist and change the existing situation, and their hands carry the values of freedom and democracy.
Participating Artists: Rotem Dror / Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt / Vardi Kahana / Käthe Kollwitz / Avishag Shaar-Yashuv / Oskar Tauber / Anna Witt