The lowest gallery in the world

structures

Restore
The
Old
Glory

The abandoned structures were used as a Jordanian camp until 1967, and later became the Nahal post, but they have been empty for more than 40 years: "My parents who founded Kibbutz Kayla lived in these buildings," says Itai Maor, together with the PPL Studio located in the area of the Megillot Regional Council, "one of the buildings was used as a clinic and then as a dining room. The idea of the project is to restore the old glory - paint the structure and bring something colorful to the area; all under the theme of coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians living in Jericho, and of course, in order to raise awareness of the disappearance of the Dead Sea. We did not think there would be such a response from the artists, but it turns out that they were really happy to take part and only waited for the opportunity.".

The Mexican artist Libre painted the faces of two people he met while on the kibbutz and at the Kayla Beach: Leary - an Israeli baby from Kayla, and Bashir - a Palestinian guy from Jericho who works at the beach. A combination of the two faces shows the unique coexistence of the northern Dead Sea area, which touched the artist's heart during the visit.

Guy, known as Dioz and Micha, aka Puka, collaborated on this piece. "We wanted to create work based 0n humor and cartoon characters," explains Guy. "The idea was that the wall would look funny because of the caricature style, but when you look at every scene, the story becomes tragic and frightening, to be indirect but very direct criticism of the state of the Dead Sea, who is responsible for it, and how to solve the problem. And throwing money into the air with dollar marks in his eyes, a tourist in a bathing suit and a cocktail in his hand with a hole in the stomach passes through a pipe, and other ways to criticize the people responsible for the Dead Sea situation. We also selected basic warning colors - red, black and yellow, so that the work would serve as a warning sign.”.

"The letters were cut and shaped on the wall conferring to the abandoned structure, the idea of the disappearance of the Dead Sea and the drying levels seen in the ground as the years pass," says Mintz. "The text also speaks of steps that descend or rise from the wound, and the wound itself can be interpreted as the reader sees fit - whether as a personal wound or that of the Dead Sea, which is a wound in the body of the state, that keeps on deepening and widening. The red color was chosen to symbolize urgency and awareness, combining that with the white text promotes an association with first aid, intensive care..

"The work presents an ancient fertility goddess, covered with sores that break her body," explains Wegman. "The goddess, in her pose, presents her body as a gift to the world, but despite her desire to give, her body crumbles and fades as much as they take from her."