On the periphery of the periphery

The Israeli Center for Digital Art was the result of a number of misunderstandings, it’s head, Gailat Eilat, informs me. The centre currently organizes three to four exhibitions each year, with a programme of collaboration that is so politically sensitive that one does not dare to discuss it even with Spana in Sweden.

Among the sleepy apartment blocks in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon one does not expect to find a dynamic cultural centre for digital art. But in an old school at No. 16 on Yirmiyahugatan one finds the Israeli Center for Digital Art. The director of the centre, Galit Eilat, talks to me in her office, chain-smoking in front of a pistachio-green wall covered with invitations to openings, exhibition brochures and political stickers. “This is certainly not a traditional setting for art. We are on the periphery of the periphery”, Eilat comments.

Founded by chance

Initially almost all the visitors came from Tel Aviv but the local population has now discovered the centre which was founded by chance in 2001. Galit was studying in the Netherlands and was contacted by the municipality of Holon who proposed that she should open a video-art gallery.

“It was a combination of misunderstandings. I sent them a proposal that they accepted. A year later I learnt that they had thought that I was going to open a videoteque for children. I opened what I considered that the neighbourhood needed. And, fortunately, the municipality responded with openness and flexibility and chose to invest in something other than what they had originally expected.

Three or four major exhibitions each year

Eilat shows me round the old school building which now houses a design studio, conference rooms, the radio station Halas, videoteque and exhibition space. The centre puts on three or four major exhibitions each year but, in order to reach out to new groups of people, many of the activities do not physically take place at the centre. Lectures are made available on the website and parts of the video collection “travel round” to various art institutions.

A whole team at the centre

Initially Eilat ran the centre herself in a small part of the school but now the entire building is used and there is a whole team of people stationed there. The centre aims to be a critical free zone in which nationalist barriers are broken down and where current Israeli policy can be questioned. But how does this square with support from the municipality?

“I realize that it may seem schizophrenic. But the municipality does not take sides with regard to our art projects. The activities are financed with external resources while the municipality pays for the basic infrastructure. This gives us control of our own activities and total artistic freedom. This is unique!”

Controversy is unavoidable

In a country like Israel in which political issues are always at boiling point one cannot avoid controversies.

“During the latest war in Lebanon in 2006 we used our magazine to attack Israel’s war policy. This led to some people beginning to question how we could use municipal funds to criticize the government’s policy. But the political tempo is so high here that the matter was forgotten after three days”, Eilat explains with a smile.

A model

With its political bent, the centre seeks to be a model. It was the first organization in Israel to publish all its information in the country’s second official language which is Arabic. Several museums have now copied this.

“That is the advantage of being direct. One sows seeds that then bear fruit. Just exhibiting art is not enough today; one needs an agenda. But it is not just a matter of what themes one addresses but also of one’s choice of language. There are not many institutions in Israel that use the word “occupation”. Rather, they speak of the “conflict with the Palestinians”.

Three walls

In the centre’s videoteque there is a whole wall devoted to art films on DVD. The counter next to it is covered with an illustration showing three places known for their walls: Berlin, USA/Mexico, Israel/Palestine. Artists, students and curators come here to search through our 2000+ indexed videos. There is a viewing room with a projector and the catalogue will soon be available online.

Focus on militarization

I settle down in the viewing room and watch “We are all Army”, a collection of videos that Eilat curated herself. The films illustrate the militarization of Israeli society. In Avi Mograbi’s “Details 1 & 2” the film-maker confronts the military with camera at the ready while Yossi Atia and Itamar Rose, in their sketch-like short films poke fun at security policy and nationalism.

Sensitive collaboration

While most art institutions in Israel look towards Europe and North America the Israeli Center for Digital Art has chosen to give priority to collaboration with actors from the Middle East and the Balkans. The centre has invited curators from Albania and Kosovo and they collaborate with the biennials in Tirana and Zagreb.

“In the former Yugoslavia people have lived through a situation similar to that which obtains here. This makes people reflect in a different way. In Israel it is otherwise easy for people to find themselves on the defensive when one takes up the matter of the occupation. It is easy to get a discussion going if the issues are addressed indirectly, from a different angle.”

Collaboration with institutions in the Middle East is also increasing though many of these ventures are so politically sensitive that Eilat cannot go into details.

Offering alternatives

The Israeli Center for Digital Art is not content with criticizing the current system but wants to offer an alternative. With the project “Liminal Spaces” they want to investigate the dynamics of the occupation by considering terms like urban surfaces, borders, mental and physical segregation, cultural spheres and political frameworks. The project took place partly in Ramallah, a very complicated operation in that Israelis are not allowed to visit Ramallah according to military law and Palestinians from the West Bank are not allowed into Israel without special permits.

“Twenty Israeli artists entered without permits and we had to get permission for twenty Palestinian artists from the West Bank to enter Israel. You can imagine the extent of the negotiations we had with the army. Apart from the artistic aspects, working in a region in which none of us have access to the “other side” is a challenge.”

Creating platforms

Eilat maintains that “Liminal Spaces” taught them a great deal about how the system works and what obstacles limit collaboration. They also managed to create a platform for future collaboration with Israeli, Palestinian and foreign artists. For Galit Eilat this is more important than mere military laws. I was in Ramallah last week. I can’t go there according to the law, but I can go there physically, she tells me laughing.

The exhibition that resulted from “Liminal Spaces” has only been shown in the German city of Leipzig. The unpredictable situation in Israel/Palestine made an exhibition there an  impossibility.  Nor does Galit think that it is always right to exhibit Palestine artists in Israel at the present time. “There is a risk that this gives an impression of normalization: ‘true, there is an occupation in force but everything is possible in spite of this’. That gives a picture of a reality that is not true.

Suspended mirror fragments

The next evening I return to Holon for an opening. Down in the cellar they are projecting video images onto suspended fragments of a mirror. The work has been created by an anonymous Iranian artist but is being exhibited by an Israeli. The political conflicts in the Middle East force people to find new forms of cooperation. And in this boundary-crossing work the Israeli Center for Digital Art plays an important part.

Tigran Feiler