greetings

rosemarie heilig

Rosemarie Heilig, Foto: Christina Clasen

In 2020, Frank­furt and Tel Aviv-Yafo have been cel­e­brat­ing the 40th anniver­sary of their city part­ner­ship. As head of the Women’s Depart­ment, I am very hap­py that this impor­tant project is being launched by Frankfurt.

 

home.frankfurt.telaviv is unique. In times of coro­na, right-wing ter­ror, and anti-fem­i­nism, it sets an exam­ple of sol­i­dar­i­ty and social cohe­sion. Dur­ing the coro­na pan­dem­ic, the pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion of female and fem­i­nist artists and the impor­tance of cul­ture for soci­ety have become par­tic­u­lar­ly apparent. 

 

I am cer­tain that home.frankfurt.telaviv will pro­vide impor­tant inspi­ra­tion and increase the vis­i­bil­i­ty of fem­i­nist artists. I will be fol­low­ing the work of the artists on the sub­ject of home in the dig­i­tal gallery, and I will be vis­it­ing their ana­logue exhi­bi­tions. I am very curi­ous to see what will be cre­at­ed over the next two years.

 

Rose­marie Heilig

Deputy may­or for cli­mate, envi­ron­ment and women

 

Foto: Christi­na Clasen

gabriele wenner

With our long-term exhi­bi­tion series “Dia­logues between Word and Image,” we con­tribute, as a women’s depart­ment, to greater vis­i­bil­i­ty and net­work­ing among female and fem­i­nist artists. This is also the start­ing point of the new home.frankfurt.telaviv project. For the first time, we are work­ing with fem­i­nist artists from both Frank­furt and Tel Aviv-Yafo.

 

Why this project? Because women are paid less, get few­er exhi­bi­tions, and do not receive as much recog­ni­tion. Many female and fem­i­nist artists are con­front­ed with these glob­al phe­nom­e­na. We are coun­ter­act­ing these forces with this project.

 

Our fore­most objec­tive is to empow­er fem­i­nist per­spec­tives in the arts across bor­ders and gen­er­a­tions. Art and cul­ture make sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to gen­der equal­i­ty and democ­ra­cy. Beyond labelling and prej­u­dices, we are cre­at­ing a com­mon space for art and feminism.

 

Gabriele Wen­ner

Head of the Frank­furt Women’s Department

 

Foto: Katha­ri­na Dubno

  • Linda Kagerbauer, Foto: Katharina Dubno
  • Sheer Issar, Foto:

linda kagerbauer, sheer issar, talya galam

At the end of 2019, when it was still pos­si­ble to trav­el between coun­tries and meet up with peo­ple, a del­e­ga­tion of the munic­i­pal­i­ty of Tel Aviv-Yafo set out to Frank­furt with the objec­tive to meet and brain­storm joint projects for the two cities. Dur­ing this meet­ing, a dia­logue as well as rela­tion­ships were formed, paving the way for cre­ation of a project to unite gen­der, com­mu­ni­ty and art.

Togeth­er, we devel­oped ideas and soon came up with a com­mon vision: to strength­en the vis­i­bil­i­ty of fem­i­nist artists and their art. Our joint project strives to break down stereo­types and make room for shared per­spec­tives and utopias. In this Ger­man-Israeli exchange, we want to cre­ate space for encoun­ters and rela­tion­ships defined by fem­i­nists and artists.

We dreamed of hold­ing a joint exhi­bi­tion for the two cities. It was clear to us all that the exhi­bi­tion would entail uni­ver­sal­ly fem­i­nist ideas. Ques­tions with regard to bond­ing and belong­ing would be addressed as well as the sub­jec­tive local expe­ri­ences of female and fem­i­nist artists – all to be exam­ined by both cities on a top­ic to be chosen.

The world of cul­ture and art have suf­fered great­ly dur­ing this pan­dem­ic. We almost gave up on this project; how­ev­er, resource­ful­ness and out­side-the-box think­ing led us to the cre­ation of a web res­i­den­cy project.

Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary and inter­sec­tion­al inter­ac­tions among artists allow for sol­i­dar­i­ty and col­lec­tive per­spec­tives in times of glob­al divi­sion and iso­la­tion. In the con­text of social crises and a glob­al pan­dem­ic, we need, more than ever, frame­works which allow for vis­i­bil­i­ty and solidarity.

Our top­ic: home

home has become a very com­plex term in 2020. On the one hand, a home pro­tects you from the world and the rag­ing pan­dem­ic. On the oth­er hand, the long peri­ods at home have exposed pow­er struc­tures and gen­der gaps.

“Invis­i­ble” work­ers and inequal­i­ty took on new dimen­sions dur­ing this peri­od. We hope that this vir­tu­al space will pro­vide a fem­i­nist gen­der lens both uni­ver­sal and local dur­ing these dif­fi­cult and strange times.

It is our aim to orga­nize tan­gi­ble ana­logue exhi­bi­tions in the two part­ner cities with­in the next two years. In the mean­time, we will use our web residencies.

This exhi­bi­tion would not have been pos­si­ble with­out the sup­port of Yonit Stern, Direc­tor of Inter­na­tion­al Exchanges – Munic­i­pal­i­ty of Tel Aviv-Yafo and Mar­lies Den­ter, Munic­i­pal Youth Edu­ca­tion Cen­ter – Munic­i­pal­i­ty of Frank­furt, who led the del­e­ga­tions so skill­ful­ly for Frank­furt and Tel Aviv-Yafo. The part­ner­ship with Anat Eizik Caspi and the Resilience & Social Equal­i­ty Author­i­ty  con­tribute to the suc­cess of the project.

Grat­i­tude and appre­ci­a­tion go out to the cura­tor Sonia Müller and to our advi­sor Michal Schwartze.

And of course, a big thanks to all of our lead­ers in the Com­mu­ni­ty, Cul­ture and Sport depart­ments and to which allowed us to dream and ful­fil those dreams.

Lin­da Kagerbauer

Advi­sor for poli­cies for girls and cul­ture at Depart­ment of Women‘s Affairs

Sheer Issar

Advi­sor for Com­mu­ni­ty and Visu­al Arts Pro­grams, Arts Department

Talya Galam

Direc­tor of Com­mu­ni­ty Rela­tions, South East Com­mu­ni­ty Department

Fotos: Katha­ri­na Dub­no, Sheer Issar, Talya Galam

dr. sonja müller

What does home mean? Trans­lat­ed into Ger­man, home means “heimat” and also “zuhause” – a place where one lives per­ma­nent­ly or to which one feels belong­ing, a coun­try of ori­gin, or one’s nation­al­i­ty. More inter­est­ing, how­ev­er, is the ques­tion – what could home be?

 

Home can be a space that allows us to be cre­ative or a place of retreat, also an inner retreat. Home has to do with child­hood mem­o­ries or mem­o­ries of loved ones. Home can be an anchor in an ocean of uproot­ed­ness or evoke utopias of being at home. And some­times we sup­press, and do not want, a notion of home.

 

For me home is first and fore­most a feel­ing – a feel­ing close­ly tied to places. Places that evoke a sen­ti­ment in me – to put it plain­ly, a feel­ing of cozi­ness. It is nice to let your­self drift into this mood with­out much think­ing, but dif­fi­cult at the same time because our knowl­edge and our minds con­nect this feel­ing of home with origin.

 

Places where you feel at home are not nec­es­sar­i­ly those to which you are bound in terms of fam­i­ly and cul­ture. These are coun­tries, cities, or (inner) spaces that allow for a life of one’s own. home can become unreach­able, ide­al­ized as par­adise lost. Can it be said that home has become a pre­cious com­mod­i­ty in today’s world?

 

In our con­text, how­ev­er, it is also impor­tant to ask artis­tic ques­tions. home.frankfurt.telaviv asks artists from both cities about their con­cepts of being at home. The choice of top­ic is not acci­den­tal. Dur­ing the lock­down, we all faced the issue of home. Across bor­ders and unwill­ing­ly. Peo­ple around the world tried to get to their home as quick­ly and safe­ly as pos­si­ble. Not all suc­ceed­ed. Oth­ers were trapped in places where they lived, but which they may not have called home. Still oth­ers have a dif­fer­ent idea of being at home: one shaped by activ­i­ties that involve their sur­round­ings and, above all, oth­er people.

 

Artists, cre­ators, and cul­tur­al medi­a­tors are chal­lenged to find new ways of reach­ing the pub­lic. This web res­i­den­cy project aims to cre­ate a pub­lic space enabling artis­tic encoun­ters between Frank­furt and Tel Aviv. The aim is not to present a fin­ished work of art, but rather the artists are being invit­ed to present the process of their work online with­in the the­mat­ic frame­work of home. We under­stand the web res­i­den­cy as a con­tem­po­rary, inno­v­a­tive, and flex­i­ble for­mat for sup­port­ing artists, and not just in times of pan­dem­ic. We look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to use dig­i­tal spaces to enable new ways of artis­tic prac­tice, art medi­a­tion, and inter­na­tion­al exchange.

 

Dr. Son­ja Müller

Cura­tor

 

Foto: Katha­ri­na Dubno

efrat makin knafo, anat eizik caspi

The Tel-Aviv-Yafo Munic­i­pal­i­ty is a bea­con of social equal­i­ty and a lead­ing advo­cate of lib­er­al val­ues in Israel. The city is home to an espe­cial­ly large num­ber of women and 23% of all fam­i­lies liv­ing in the city are sin­gle-par­ent fam­i­lies head­ed by a woman.

 

At the present time, when Covid-19 is chal­leng­ing people’s lives around the world, when one’s home is not only the place you live in, but also the place you are some­times not allowed to leave – this ini­tia­tive, in the form of a work cre­at­ed by all the artists, will reflect not only their aspi­ra­tions, tal­ent and cre­ativ­i­ty, but will also echo their cur­rent thoughts on the con­cept of home.

 

The gen­der impli­ca­tions of the pan­dem­ic are wit­nessed by a grow­ing inci­dence of gen­der and sex­u­al vio­lence that is cou­pled with high­er unem­ploy­ment rates among women.

 

This dig­i­tal home, this project’s web­site, is home to artists from Frank­furt and Tel-Aviv-Yafo, who are togeth­er under the same roof and fac­ing sim­i­lar glob­al circumstances.

 

Let’s cel­e­brate this shared space, the expanse of free­dom to express our­selves and be part of the change we wish to see.

 

Efrat Makin Knafo

Head of the resilience & Social Equal­i­ty Author­i­ty, May­or Advi­sor for Gen­der Equality

Anat Eizik Caspi

Direc­tor of Resilience & cities Partnerships

 

Fotos: Efrat Makin Knafo, Anat Eizik Caspi

tslilit ben nevat

“‪To live a fem­i­nist life is to make every­thing into some­thing that is ques­tion­able. The ques­tion of how to live a fem­i­nist life is alive as a ques­tion as well as being a life ques­tion.” (‪Liv­ing a Fem­i­nist Life, ‪Sara Ahmed)

 

Life this year has been shak­en by the Coro­na plague that has over­tak­en the world, bring­ing uncer­tain­ty, anx­i­ety and inse­cu­ri­ty. Espe­cial­ly in a peri­od like this, home for me is an anchor, it is the safe and pro­tec­tive place. And so is the act of art.

 

The home project as its name implies – is a home for the artists and for every­one who takes part in it. The female part­ner­ship leads him to be a pro­tect­ed space, where we are giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to observe the peri­od we are going, through dif­fer­ent home spaces (phys­i­cal and men­tal), and while cre­at­ing, explor­ing and con­verg­ing we are ques­tion­ing and cling­ing to the ques­tion of life.

 

Tslilit Ben Nevat

Direc­tor of Arts Depart­ment Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality

 

Foto: Tslilit Ben Nevat

alma shiran

When we talk about the South of Tel Aviv, we refer to a col­lec­tion of neigh­bor­hoods with incred­i­ble his­to­ry and lega­cy. South of Tel Aviv has a rich past and note­wor­thy present. 

 

Even though it still expe­ri­ences var­i­ous chal­lenges, it is a fas­ci­nat­ing area where the res­i­dents have had a hand in its immense growth. The great artists that came out of these neigh­bor­hoods, the cul­tur­al tra­di­tions and com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment, all con­tribute to the South of Tel Aviv becom­ing a sta­ple in our his­to­ry and society.

 

We all define home in dif­fer­ent ways. For me, it is some­where where I can be myself and find hap­pi­ness. It is where I feel loved and cher­ished. All these and more are so appar­ent in these neigh­bor­hoods and the peo­ple who made them their home. The incred­i­ble warmth, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, and kind­ness are what the peo­ple of these neigh­bor­hoods dis­play so strong­ly and open­ly. It is what makes this place a man­i­fes­ta­tion of home.

 

Alma Shi­ran

Head of the Com­mu­ni­ty divi­sion in South Tel Aviv

 

Foto: Alma Shi­ran

marlies denter, yonit stern

This year we are cel­e­brat­ing 40 years of part­ner­ship between the cities of Frank­furt and Tel Aviv-Yafo.

 

Our part­ner­ship is blessed with numer­ous exchanges of youth and pro­fes­sion­als from the depart­ments of edu­ca­tion and com­mu­ni­ty. Our del­e­ga­tions meet every year in both cities with aim to share knowl­edge and to deep­en the bonds between our people.

 

home.frankfurt.telaviv was cre­at­ed in 2019 by par­tic­i­pants of our experts del­e­ga­tions who met in Frank­furt and Tel Aviv-Yafo in 2019–2020.

 

Unfor­tu­nate­ly COVID19 required changes and adap­ta­tion to new ideas.       We are hap­py that the ded­i­ca­tion of the mem­bers from our exchange: Lin­da, Shir and Talia to the project made it happen.

 

We see great impor­tance in projects that brings us togeth­er and open our minds and hearts.

 

Thank you all part­ners for your ded­i­ca­tion and love.

 

Mar­lies Denter

Munic­i­pal Youth Edu­ca­tion Cen­ter – Munic­i­pal­i­ty of Frankfurt

Yonit Stern

Direc­tor of Inter­na­tion­al Exchanges – Munic­i­pal­i­ty of Tel Aviv-Yafo