Wednesday, 6 February 2019 at 1:30 pm – Wednesday, 6 February 2019 at 3:00 pm
Mor Cohen - Things that Grow From Below: Art Collectives in Israel
Politics and International Relations Seminar Series
Date: Wednesday 6th February 2018
Time: 1.30pm – 3pm
Location: GM302, Geoffrey Manton
Tickets: Free – available on Eventbrite: https://mor-cohen-art-collectives-in-israel.eventbrite.com
In the last two decades, there has been a wide emergence of art collectives in Israel. They often work in mixed cities, such as Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv, which are inhabited by Israeli-Jews from different ethnic and religious backgrounds, as well as Israeli-Palestinians, migrant workers and asylum-seekers. The appearance of these art collectives, alongside new forms of urban and socially engaged art, are part of an interesting turning point both in the way art is made and perceived in Israel, and both in the way citizens respond to social and political matters.
Following the current social and political developments in Israel, with emphasis on the 2011 Israeli protests for social justice, Mor Cohen will examine the ways art collectives respond to issues such as the high cost of living, inequality, and socio-economic divisions. Some of the collectives’ activities include organising gardening workshops, offering temporary solutions to social problems, such as a free public kitchen and libraries, and organising alternative tours and festivals in neighbourhoods.
Leaving the mainstream institutions for producing and depicting art, such as museums and galleries, and working with under-represented communities suggest alternative ways for forming collectives identities and narratives which challenge the socio-political climate in Israel. However, these types of collaboration also posit the art collectives in challenging sceneries where they need to navigate between the artistic and the communal, the social and the political. Cohen will present some of these challenges using the case of the art collective Muslala who works in Jerusalem and aim to produce art events that connect the different groups living in the city.
Biography
Mor Cohen is a PhD candidate in the Postgraduate Arts and Humanities Center at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research examines contemporary art collectives working in mixed cities in Israel, the production of third spaces through socially engaged art practices, and intersections of art and politics in Israel.
Part of the Politics, International Relations and Public Services Research Seminar Series at Manchester Met. The Politics, International Relations and Public Services Research Seminar Series is a unique, cross-disciplinary seminar series that was launched in 2017 to bring together scholars working across several research centres whose work focuses on political questions. The series brings together scholars from the History Research Centre, the Centre for Creative Writing, English Literature and Linguistics, and the Research Centre for Applied Social Sciences. We are supported by the Politics, International Relations and Public Services section, and our members also have connections to the Critical Theory Network, Gothic Research Cluster and the Religious and Intellectual History Cluster. The series aims to bring together scholars from around the UK and Manchester Metropolitan to explore political research with a strong emphasis on knowledge exchange. We welcome the public, students, practitioners and researchers to attend, with a view to showcasing the variety of world-leading Politics, IR and Public Services research at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Booking a ticket will guarantee you a place at this event, although feel free to just turn up as well!