A rhetorical fig leaf, the coinage “according to foreign sources” is a common tongue-in-cheek expression in many countries, Israel among them. Although it derives from a situation of legal obscurity, it is nevertheless used with distinctive clarity concerning the punishment for those who dare remove the leaf. “According to foreign sources” has become a prevalent expression in official briefings, the media, and academic discourse. It is habitually used to skirt censorial restrictions whose justification is security in the broadest and most unrestricted sense. It allows the speaker to evade responsibility for exposing forbidden information: They, the foreigners, claim so; it has all been said before.

Creative Actuality brings together writing and specially commissioned internet-based projects that consider the influences of contemporary technologies on issues such as self-reflexivity, the difficulties of representation, self-made media content, and the camera’s role within documentary-based art and video.

Whose Voice is This Anyway?, a new supplement in Ma’arav, deals with questions such as who ‘owns’ the voice of the other, if anyone can ‘own’ a voice anyway, and what is the character of the moral right to employ it, as well as with the cultural repercussions of these question on contemporary culture and art. Showcasing and debating artworks, curatorial work, film and activism, the supplement evaluates the different questions that arise from creation by and research of the other.

On the eve of the 53rd Venice Art Biennale’s opening, Ronen Eidelman interviews Dorit Levité, curator of the Israeli pavilion, trying to understand why the Raffi Lavie show was chosen, why she is doing it and how all of that ties in with Israeli art’s place in the Middle East.