Autobiography of a city - Project #2
http://jaffaproject.org/events/?page_id=7
Parrhesia Group With youth from Sadaka-Reut, the Arab-Jewish Community Center and Alon organization
10.11.2007 | 12:00
Opening Event includes a tour and meeting with Ajami residents. The tour will leave from “Gan Hashnaim” Yefet st. in the corner of Erlich st.
Through Language project turns the public sphere of Ajami quarter of Jaffo– the sidewalks, roads, fences - into a visual Arabic- Hebrew dictionary. The words, designated in spray paint, in Arabic with a Hebrew transcription and translation into Hebrew, were written on a walking track in the neighborhood.
The project is a response to the process of erasure of the Arabic Language from the public sphere in Israel. This process of exclusion can be seen in many road signs, where the Arabic is being erased. Through Language track goes through a mixed neighborhood where the road signs are in Hebrew only. The Arabic is not written there from the beginning. Aside of the process of cultural exclusion, urban and economic development created by the authorities and the real estate market lead physically to the shoving out of the Arab residents.
Through Language is a course for a walking tour that integrates getting acquainted with the quarter through wandering around and being invited to read it in a new perspective. The words constitute a key to stories. Memories, hopes and fears, which, for the most part, are only heard inside the houses, without their bearing any kind of presence in the public sphere or its discourse.
Parrhesia is a group of educators, social activists & artists (from the fields of graphic & Industrial design, photography, video and fine art) who work in the civil society in Israel. The group cooperates with organizations for social change, with community activists, in addition to working independently in the public sphere.
Through Language was first presented in August 2006, in the framework of the exhibit "Neighborhood Works" (Curators: the Sala-manca Group), in the German Colony in Jerusalem.
For tours and detail:
Sami Buchari, Ayam – 052-5241505, Hagar Goren, Parrhesia - 054-4525464
www.jaffaproject.org/events
Initiated by “Ayam”, with the support of the Tel Aviv – Jaffa Municipality's Culture & Arts Division, Department of Arts. The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon / The New Israel Fund
