Thursday evening (January 21), my team went to the opening night of a new exhibit at the Museum on the Seam (http://www.mots.org.il/Eng/) in Jerusalem. The name of this museum comes from the fact that the building stands right on the Green Line that used to divide Jerusalem until 1967. This location is highly symbolic: standing on the divide, the museum seeks to bridge the gap that separates cultures and people in Palestine/Israel. Its mission statement begins with the following paragraph:
"The Museum on the Seam is a socio-political contemporary art museum located in Jerusalem. The Museum in its unique way, presents art as a language with no boundaries in order to raise controversial social issues for public discussion. At the center of the changing exhibitions in the Museum stand the national, ethnic and economic seam lines in their local and universal contexts."
The current exhibit, HomeLessHome, is fascinating, raising unexpected issues regarding the occupation and its impact on the populations. The opening night was crowded, primarily with Israelis who were definitevly willing to face the hidden side of their polical and social reality.
Leaving the building and its beautiful setting, I tried to understand the role of art in this context. Sometimes, art represents a means of bringing a far-away reality to viewers who cannot access it otherwise; here, the reality is just on the other side of the street. In this case then, the exhibit seems to bring viewers to a reality they can observe only through aesthetic forms. What is the function of art in this case? A veil or a revelation?
Chère Muriel, je viens de lire votre dernier message, j'ai ,cette fois un peu de mal à traduire mais je vais chercher une traduction.
ReplyDeleteaVEZ VOUS REçu mon dernier message . Ce que vous dites est passionnant et nous emmène avec vous en ces lieux que j'aimerais aussi voir ,bien sûr Toute mon amitié Jeannette