New "Tent Time" Exhibit at Hebrew University Examines Tent Protests

New "Tent Time" Exhibit at Hebrew University Examines Tent Protests

Jerusalem – The Hebrew University is staging a special exhibit about the essential symbol of the social protests that rocked the state of Israel last summer -- the tent.

Called "Tent Time," the exhibit will feature the work of artists Ido Bruno and Yael Rubin, accompanied by the writings of university researchers. The exhibit will formally open at the Max and Iris Stern Gallery on the Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus on Sunday, Nov. 27, at 6:30 p.m., and will be open to the public over the coming months from Sundays through Thursdays between the hours of 9 a.m. and 8 p.m.
 
Industrial designer Ido Bruno's installation of 420 tiny tents explores the role the tent has played throughout the country's history: from the absorption camps of the 1950s, through the tents of the first settlers in the territories at Elon-Moreh, to the tent-village Arcadi Gaydamak constructed at Nitzanim to host families who fled the north during the 2006 conflict with Lebanon. Bruno is a senior lecturer in the Department of Industrial Design at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.

Artist Yael Rubin, a photographer focusing on society, captured the social protest's characters and situations on camera, then enlarged the pictures and gave them three-dimensional volume.

The exhibit includes a companion booklet featuring the writings of Hebrew University academicians expressing diverse views about the protest. Prof. Michael Shalev from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Department of Political Science analyzes the protest movement; Dr. Amos Goldberg from The Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry examines the contrast between the symbolic meanings of "the tent" and "the villa," and doctoral student Hagar Hajaj-Berger from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology presents impressions of the "Land of Rothschild."

Hebrew University Vice-President and Director-General Billy Shapira said, "The social protest was led by students, and thus demands of the university to present an exhibit directly related to its students' activities." University curator Michal Mor added, "The exhibit reflects a new approach for the Stern Gallery, to present exhibits that correspond to social realities and promote artistic, cultural and intellectual dialogue. I hope this exhibit will stimulate academic discussion in the classroom and among the students. "

In an unusual follow-up, on the exhibit's opening day, Ido Bruno will distribute small tents to visitors who register in advance (this will take place at the Stern Gallery between the hours of 4 and 6 p.m. on Nov 27). Bruno's condition for receiving a tent is that people then find new uses for the tents and send him a documentation of these uses for display on his website.

For information, contact:

Dov Smith, Dept. of Media Relations, the Hebrew University, tel: 02-5881641, cell: 054-882-0661
Orit Sulitzeanu, Hebrew University spokesperson, tel: 02-5882910, cell: 054-882-0016.