"HomeLessHome" Exhibits Political Influence on Private Homes

The latest exhibition called "HomeLessHome" in the Museum on the Seam in Jerusalem makes an audience think a lot of how politics is influencing our homes, especially in the middle east where conflicts play a part in almost everyone's life. Our Jerusalem correspondent Xiaoyu has the details.

From installations with woven ropes around the museum's exterior wall to a video clip that documents Palestinian kids playing in ruins of their homes after an air strike, though the works are all with the same theme "home", the audience got a strong feeling of "homeless" after seeing the exhibition.

"Home is a very powerful thing for most of us. If you bring this into the exhibits, your heart can only break for all of these people that don't have that space. I wanted somebody, as it's called home and homeless, I thought maybe there would be one piece of home at some place but there wasn't. So I have to go home and get."

The exhibits are designed by nearly 40 artists from 22 countries, some of which are from countries that are not friendly to Israel including Lebanon and Iran. From these works, comprehensions towards the same problems differ greatly among artists of different nationalities, which inspire the audience to think about not only themselves but also their neighbors who are living beyond the border.

"There is a lot to think about. Whether to choose to live in a small home peacefully or live in a big one without a sense of safety? Each of these works make me think of myself and other's lives."

"It's a lot to think about. I'm old enough to remember when there was more public personal space and it's less and less. So I think this is part of this exhibition, talking about the blurring of those lines, the boundaries are not as sharp as they used to be. It's definitely very political. I was here before and this is a museum that takes on difficult issues and shows points of view that don't necessarily get air in other places and I think that's important."

The museum accommodates the exhibition perfectly as it locates on the former border of Israel and Jordan, which is supposed to be the future border between Israel and Palestine. Political conflicts have driven the public to see their suffering much more than that of their rivals. Curator of the museum and initiator of the exhibition Raphie Etgar told CRI that it's important that artists from some Arab countries ever accepted his invitation.

"This is one of the first times that we were able to bring artists from such countries. To bring them from Iran, Afghanistan, and Lebanon, actually for us, that they would join the exhibition, is a very important stage because usually it's very hard to get their acceptance to join exhibitions in Israel. Now it's very important for us to listen to not only ourselves, but also to have a chance to listen to others, and to evaluate the situation and be able to compare between other ideas and ours."

The exhibition will run till this July. As the museum is awarded as one of the 29 art venues around the world by the New York Times, your visit here won't let you down.

Xiaoyu, CRI news, Jerusalem.