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232, The Fragile Edges of Remembrance

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About two and a half years ago, I began traveling roughly twice a week to the Western Negev, joining field trips to photograph "trauma objects" as part of a documentation, registration, and conservation mission led by Yad Ben-Zvi following October 7 2023.

 

Alongside this institutional task, I photographed the road itself. Route 232 continuously transformed over this period: a vital route that contained an entire world before October 7, while seeming perpetually frozen in that horrific day, yet simultaneously carrying forward the rhythm of life enduring, rebuilding, and renewing.

Tank tracks gradually faded. Bullet holes were layered over with memorial stickers. Protest signs appeared and weathered; makeshift memorials were erected; installations calling for the return of the hostages rose, shifted, and were dismantled. Traces of war, military movement, smoke, helicopters, and wildlife, birds in flight, stray dogs passing through, mingled with agricultural cycles as fields bloomed, were harvested, and dried out under the sun.

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My broader artistic practice is rooted in studio still life, using photography, sculpture and video art, traditions deeply engaged with the themes of vanitas, material fragility, and the tension between transience and preservation. Transitioning from the controlled environment of the studio to the raw, fluctuating terrain of the Western Negev transposed these concerns onto an open landscape. Here, the road became an expansive, uncontained still life: an archive of everyday objects, traces, and physical residue testifying to sudden rupture, collective trauma, and quiet persistence.

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Out of more than 20,000 frames captured along this route, I distilled a selection of roughly 2,000 photographs. These are installed along the corridor connecting the studios at Teddy Artists' Workshops, where my own studio is based, creating a direct encounter between my daily creative workspace and the road indelibly etched into my consciousness. The installation is arranged as a geographic parallel to the route itself, tracing the path from Sderot to Kerem Shalom along the physical length of the hallway from entrance to end.

 

Curatorial Consultation: Maayan Israeli

 

Opening: Wednesday, October 7, 18:00 at Teddy Artists' Studios, Jerusalem

 

Gallery opening hours

 Sun., Mon., Wed., Fri. 10:00-14:00

Tue. and Thu. 15:00-19:00

(and by appointment)

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