Woman to Woman Fragments of Life Five Viewpoints

Woman to Woman Fragments of Life – Five Viewpoints Photos of the Shelter for Battered Women

Fragments of Life – Five Viewpoints Photos of the Shelter for Battered Women Anat Gal, Anat Dizian, Rivka Hille Lavian, Carmela Keet, Vered Sadot Noga Arad-Eilon, Curator This exhibition is the outcome of a cooperative effort between Woman to Woman and its Shelter for Battered Women in Jerusalem, and a group comprising five photographers and one curator, Noga Arad-Elon of the Jerusalem Theater, which is hosting the exhibition. The photographers visited the Shelter over a period of several weeks, breathed in its unique atmosphere, got to know the women and children and, with their camera lenses, captured instants in the lives of the residents and the staff. A number of additional questions arose in the course of the project: Could – and should – the intricacies of life in the Shelter and the complexity of feelings experienced between its walls possibly be reflected in the photos? How closely should the existential fears and pain of the residents be followed? What is the artistic statement made by the collection of photos? Each of the photographers had answers of her own – five photographers and five viewpoints, as expressed not only in the photos but also in the accompanying texts written by each of them.

Fragments of Life – Five Viewpoints The ongoing discourse between the photographers and curator and the Shelter’s staff and volunteers added a certain depth, meaning and intimacy to the process. With compassion and affection, the exhibit engages the spectator with its sensitive projection of the artists’ perspectives on the Shelter: the routine of daily life, the inevitable worry alongside the serenity created by the sense of security, the natural joy of the children alongside the anxiety and misgivings. The photographs were displayed in an exhibition at the Jerusalem Theater in December, 2016, on the occasion of Woman to Woman's annual fundraiser.

As an active volunteer in Woman to Woman for many years, coming into the Shelter is an ordinary event. But coming into the Shelter with a camera was different. The women shirked from me and avoided me. The children were excited, pushing their way toward a touch, eager for a photo and for attention. A special building but wrapped in walls and bars, enfolding so very much sorrow, pain and loneliness. And within it so much effort is taken to build hopes and strengths for a new life. Annat Gal

On the personal experience of taking photos in the Shelter The experience of photographing the Shelter shuttled me between observing from the side-lines and getting closer and personally engaged with the women and children. Between my first glimpse of the cooperative Shelter and kibbutz-style dining room and my awareness that this was a refuge for those who could no longer live in torture. The quiet observation of the bubbles of intimacy between a woman and a volunteer carried the soft murmur of the heart to me in the sounds of their conversations. The limits of exposure, which for me posed a challenge, are a necessity for the women and children who crossed the borders of violence and painfulness on their bodies and in their souls. And above everything else, the feeling that in this Shelter, in which they found refuge, I found islands of sanity, love and the summer joy of children. Anat Dycian

All sorts of thoughts run through my head on my way to the Shelter: intimacy, family, fate, choice. I arrive excitedly, reaching the picturesque Jerusalem neighborhood with its pastoral stone houses. A blue gate faces me. I push the bell. I go down a path lined with well-tended geraniums. It’s late morning. The house is quiet, tidy, clean, the smell of baking in the air. The women who are here have chosen life, strength. The children are surrounded, embraced. Protected. A shelter of love. Rivka Hillel Lavian

The entrance into the Shelter shakes you up. The door opens and three small children jump all over me excitedly and ask what I brought … I go up and down, looking around, trying to absorb it all, and the house – is a house! A busy dining room, a TV corner, children’s rooms, long hallways, and rooms. The door is open to one of the rooms and I peek in – beds, a table, a few pictures, very basic – a temporary home … The women are quiet, the children play hide-and-seek: they’re curious. One of them takes me on a tour, regaling me with his own personal, and not at all simple, story along the way. I’m beginning to get it … A house that holds tremendous pain. And I wonder, what will allow me to open up to all this pain, to touch it? Will I be able to give it expression through photography? Carmell Keet, Shoham

First of all, to take the risk. To look for safety, and to find it. After all, you’ve just stood in the spot where life was torn asunder from its foundations. Is it possible? And thus the question whether the house exists only appears to be an informative one. And then you’ll discover that the person who surrounded herself with walls and impenetrable armor is the same person without them as well. And you were no other. You erased the habit of not having legitimacy for your noisy feelings in your present life. Until you stopped dreading. Knowing in advance so as not to be surprised. Including the blow. No memories are in themselves strange and familiar. And from the moment you overcame the fear of what was awaiting you on the other side of the telephone and the doors – everything was open. The last house speaks of hope. Of life without him and normalcy without fear of being submissive. The race is over. Vered Sadot, Jerusalem

Fragments of Life – Five Viewpoints Photos of the Shelter for Battered Women We extend our appreciation to the photographers who volunteered their time and talents for the benefit of the joint project and to the curator who took an active role in the project from its very inception. And, of course, our heartfelt thanks to the women and their children; the exhibition brings to the forefront something of their stories and the challenging and courageous path they have chosen to follow toward a new life without violence. The exhibition was dedicated to the memory of Tzippi Suesskind Z”L, the Jerusalem Shelter’s devoted friend and volunteer. Jerusalem, December 2016