-
NEW! Get email alerts when this author publishes a new articleYou will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile pageYou will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page
- Website
- RSS
Day 479 of the War: ‘Local Testimony’ 2024
It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since I attended Local Testimony 2023, and yet we are still at war. Last year, much of the exhibition focused on the judicial overhaul, with the massacre of October 7 added later https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/day-81-of-the-war-in-front-of-a-locked-gate/as part of a collage video. This time, the exhibition Local Testimony 2024 is more direct and impactful, yet it remains curated with good taste and sensitivity.
As we entered the ground floor, we were greeted on the right by a huge wall covered in colorful notes where visitors could add their wishes for the future. Nearby, a film played, featuring several groups of young people: residents from Be’eri, young women who lost their partners in the war, soldiers who fought in Gaza, and the three daughters of hostage Ohad Ben Ami. They all spoke openly about their feelings and their losses. It was heartbreaking.
On the first floor was the main exhibition, showcasing photographs and videos by journalists and media reporters. The curation was strikingly effective. One powerful juxtaposition paired a photo by Amir Cojen of a herd of deer grazing on a green meadow outside the ruins of the Shejaiya neighborhood in Gaza with a photo by Micha Brikman of the burnt Kerem neighborhood in Be’eri. The exhibition was fascinating, without being voyeuristic. The photographs were raw and truthful. Yet the sadness was overwhelming—it was hard to breathe. The curator seemed intent on showing us the devastating cost of this tragedy, refusing to sugarcoat it.
My friend, who accompanied me to the exhibition, asked when and how I first heard about the tragedy on October 7. I told her that, although I heard sirens in Ramat Gan at 6:30 in the morning, I didn’t suspect anything unusual and went roller skating in the park. There, I heard another siren and noticed people in the park talking anxiously. That’s when I texted my friend Vivian Silver in Be’eri to ask how she was. Her reply was the first time I realized something terrible had happened https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/day-39-of-the-war-devastating-news-about-vivian-silver/. Even then, I had no idea of the full extent of the tragedy.
Today is International Holocaust Memorial Day. It felt like an appropriate day to visit the exhibition. On our way out, we saw a photo of the mailboxes in Kibbutz Nir Oz. It was shocking to see the small colored notes indicating who was murdered and who was kidnapped on October 7—a chilling reminder of a present-day Shoah
Related Topics