HAMAS IN THE HAMPTONS, Bomb Shelter Exhibit on view though August 24th at the Vered Gallery
|
Jul 31 2010 9:00 PM
|
 email to a friend | bookmark
|
Escaping to the Hamptons now includes running into a bomb shelter thanks to a unique benefit exhibit hosted by the prestigious Vered Gallery and created by Artists 4 Israel, a group of New York artists and advocates with a reputation for radical, even scandalous tactics.
On July 31st at 9pm though August 24th, the Vered Gallery invites viewers into THE BOMB SHELTER, a multi-media museum installation and functioning shelter that is designed to give a harrowing experience of the same terror suffered by the Israeli town of Sderot near the Gaza border that has been victim to over 10,000 rocket attacks at the hands of Hamas, as well as to showcase the amazing beauty and strength of its residents.
The exhibit jarringly merges two very different worlds. The gray concrete walls of the bomb shelter sit starkly in the gallery's elegant space (68 Park Place, East Hampton) which houses famous paintings by Picasso, Chagall and others, destined for display in museums or high-end private collections.
As soon as visitors line up to enter the shelter, the deceptively calm Tzeva Adom warning begins to sound. This is the same siren that gives Sderot residents notice that they have just 15 seconds to find shelter before the rockets begin falling. Then, like in Sderot, visitors will hear the sound of explosions. As they rush into the shelter amidst the blasts, immersive video continues the heart pounding experience as an actual Qassam barrage hitting Sderot unfolds around them - all from the perspective of being in the crowd suffering through the attack.
"The ability of the people to continue to hope in the face of fear and pain is what inspired our artists the most when they visited Sderot in April," Says Craig Dershowitz, President of Artists 4 Israel, the non-profit group behind the exhibit. "Just living, under those circumstances, truly is an art, and we've tried to capture that here."
THE BOMB SHELTER exhibit will be running at the Vered Gallery through August 24th and after that it will move to locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan. "Artists 4 Israel is creating this entire Museum with minimal funding and through the passion of its volunteers. We seek to democratize and make current the museum experience," says Dershowitz, "we are also seeking permits to bring the shelter to anti-Israel rallies as a way of 'de-intellectualizing the rhetoric.'"
|
|
|