The largest and most important exhibition of its kind comprises a selection of the World Press Photo completion and the best of local photojournalism – Local Testimony. Dozens of photographers from Israel and abroad are participating in both exhibits, presenting a sequence of events in selected pictures from the past year on topics related to war and peace, politics and society, culture and art, nature and the environment, sports, portraits, multimedia presentations, etc. As in previous years, a statement-exhibit by the exhibit’s curator will also be on display, offering an in-depth view of the summer 2011 tent city protest.
“The social protest of the summer of 2011 engulfed large parts of the population, which is verified by the numerous photos submitted to the competition. Thousands set up protest tents, demonstrated in the city streets and squares, and visited the tent city in order to closely feel the power of the protest. Many people actively experienced the events, either by visiting the location or by viewing individual and other photographs published in the various media.
The three winning series relate to the protest from several perspectives.
Each photographer tells the story of the protest in his own way. The statement exhibit derives from the photographs of the protest and expands the issue through photographs from tent protests that were etched on the Israeli collective memory: A housing shortage in 1990 followed the massive immigration from the former Soviet Union, and tents sprang up throughout Israel. In 2002, Yisrael Twito led a protest of homeless people. He set up an encampment in Kikar Hamedinah and changed the square’s name to Kikar Halechem (Bread Square). Tent cities were set up over the years in diverse public spaces, among them, opposite the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem; the last one was the Shalit family tent that was dismantled with the return of Gilad Shalit from captivity.”
