A live panel discussion that took place as part of the IPER Festival Delle Periferie in Rome. The official title of the discussion is “The Other Side” focusing on a key question: “Can Art facilitate dialog between mutually exclusive groups?”
The moderator is Jonathan Levy, a member of Binyamin Gallery, a self-managed and self-funded gallery in Tel-Aviv. At the end of the discussion, the video "Evyatar (2021)" by Jonathan Levy, with Evyatar Ben-Salomon, was shown. This video is a result of a chance encounter one stop before the end of the line. The Panel - Oren Amit, manager of the Center for Contemporary Art in Arad and manager of the Culture Department at the Arad Community Center. Dafna Talmon, an Israeli multidisciplinary Artist, who’s personal life cannot be separated from her Art, in which she examines this very connection. She explores excess culture and tries to break down barriers between people. Yael Messer is the Director and Curator of Beit Hagefen’s gallery, an Arab Jewish Cultural Center in Haifa. Soha Faroja, an Israeli Palestinian Artist who continuously challenges the conservative norms of her close environment, and actively works to connect Arab youth to Art. And lastly, Boaz Torfstein, an Israeli multidisciplinary Artist, member of Binyamin Gallery, currently living and working from London. His Art is based on observations on day to day situations. The trigger for this talk is the growing disconnect between groups in Israel and the difficulty, in fact reluctance, to listen to members of the “other” groups. We, the Artists at Binyamin, feel we are just as much part of the problem, and want to work on an Art Project that can be both interesting, and hopefully also part of the solution.
© Binyamin Gallery