Bimkom’s 25th anniversary

The exhibition Home.Place tells the unique stories of six communities that were deprived of their planning rights through discriminatory planning, harmful planning practices, or lack of recognition by the state authorities. These stories document moments of small successes, long-term community processes, public struggles, and the support of Bimkom and other civil society organizations..

The exhibition highlights the direct connection between planning and human rights. It offers a critical perspective on how spatial planning profoundly shapes people’s lives, their connection to the land, their sense of security, their collective memory, and their ability to build the future

Featured artists and works include photographer Miki Kratsman’s series of photos from the unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Zarnuq in the Negev. The photos reveal spotless order in al-Zarnuk, challenging common perceptions of an “unrecognized village.” Paper figurines by artist Tamar Paikes are made from planning documents for the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Isawiyya. Paikes uses a huge heap of documents to show how bureaucracy and red tape erase the residents’ identity. Talia Hoffman uses a stereoscope to retrace her visit to Dekeika, the hidden village on the margins of the South Hebron Hills that for years has been struggling for recognition. Gaston Zvi Ickowicz and Alon Cohen-Lifshitz reveal the growth emerging from the ruins of a demolished home in the Palestinian village of al-Walaje. Adi Segal, documenting daily life in a Bedouin farm in northern Israel, emphasizes the complex interplay between land, gender, situated lived experience, and policies of exclusion.

Curators: Eran Tamir-Tawil, Shelly Cohen, Michal Braier, Vardit Tsurnamal, Efrat Cohen-Bar, Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, and Littal Yadin.