„Challenging Walls“

An art-peace project by Walkscreen

Challenging Walls, an initiative of Berlin-based artists Walkscreen, is an art-peace project that shares the vision of bringing together in an active dialogue the diverse communities of people living within the parameters of physical and mental walls in Israel and Palestine.?
Using art as the vehicle of peace and understanding, this project is deemed to dissolve the concrete wall dividing the nations by transforming it into a silver screen that will reflect photographs of day-to-day life.

Co-organised with INDEX (Cyprus), University of Ulster (Northern Ireland), Academie der Kuenste (Germany) and its partners in Israel, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Cinemateque, more than 200 international artists and scholars are expected to gather in Jerusalem, Israel on 9-13 July 2007, in conjunction with the Jerusalem International Film Festival.

As an integral part of the process, four teams composed of photographers, researchers, curators and cultural managers will be working towards a process that will enable the sharing of realities, experiences and wishes of people in their day-to-day activities in the different wall divided environment. A series of activities such as workshops, photo documentation and online fora will be organised in the different conflict countries between March-June 2007. Outcomes of these initial exchanges will be highlighted at the conference and artistic installation scheduled in July 2007 in Jerusalem.?

During the one-day conference, artists and researchers involved in the project will engage in a dialogue with the local audiences from Israel and Palestine and share their personal experiences of living within the wall divided communities as well as the significant steps that they have undertaken towards the realisation of this project in relation to their own environment.

This gathering of minds will be concluded with an artistic installation in the area of Abu dis.? Using image projections on both sides of the Israeli and Palestinian wall, photo stories resulting from the collaborative work of the 8 participating artists for Challenging Walls will occupy the 60-metre space of the solid concrete dividing the two nations.?? The installation, which will loop in a 20-minute film 160 photographs, will be projected in life-size images representing the human beings behind and beyond the walls.? Through this creative presentation, Challenging Walls will bring side by side the personal realities of the different peoples from the conflict countries from varied angles, perceptions, employing different eyes and points of view.

Audiences for the installation will be transported to the Abu dis with buses to gather and witness the symbolic gathering of peoples during this special occasion.?

You are all invited to join us in Israel on 9-13 July 2007 and take part in this historical moment.

Walkscreen

2007

(c) walkscreen.de/challengingwalls.eu