Binyamin Gallery hosts Zochrot in a new group exhibition:

Has anybody seen the photograph of an infiltrator?

Artists: Michal Bar-Or, Nir Harel, May Omer, Ronit Citri

Curator: Debby Farber

Opening: March 7, 2019, 19:00

In an era of occupying the world as a picture, the absence of certain images from our field of vision affects the way a phenomenon is given meaning or erased from consciousness, becomes visible or remains in the dark. Starting in the 1950s, a new object appeared in Israeli discourse: “infiltration”. Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees crossed the borders of the newly established state, attempting to return to their homes and lands, retrieve belongings left behind, visit relatives and try to remain in their homeland.  In the public discourse, this was shaped as Israel’s severest political problem, hence their derogatory title, “infiltrators”. Despite the centrality of that phenomenon, infiltration appeared in the discourse almost without the mediation of visual images. In fact, it appeared as an invisible sight. The presence of those refugees/infiltrators as absence was the point of departure for the participating artists, who propose a present perspective that contains the historical event as a material sign that cannot be dismissed or made to disappear. 

Closing date: April 6, 2019
Address: Binyamin Gallery, 5 Shvil HaMeretz St., Building 7, 3rd floor, Tel Aviv
Opening hours: Wed 11:00-14:00, Thu 16:00-19:00, Fri & Sat 11:00-14:00

Assistant curator: Maya Yavin | Graphic design: The Studio (Avigail Rainer & Shlomi Nahmani) | English translation and editing: Ami Asher | Arabic translation: Glocal Translation Services | We thank the members of Binyamin Gallery for generously hosting the exhibition in their venue and for their cooperation, and the Zochrot team: Rachel Beit Arie, Umar Al-Ghubary, Amaya Galili, Natasha Dudisnki, and Najwan Birqadar

* The title paraphrases the title of photography researcher Ariella Azoulay’s pioneering book, The Civil Contract of Photography (2006), which discusses the absence of photographic documentation of rape from the public sphere.