Hadar Saifan

Public shelters Residency, 2014

Donated by the Lucie Rozenbaum Foundation to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's art collection

Size: 60X60

In times of bombing entire populations are being isolated into public shelters. The shelters spaces are designed for basic needs by the community's security coordinator and undergo impulsive change by the staying with a temporary consciousness. Being underground for unknown duration invites boredom, idle, anxiety, density, play, social intimacy and mental fortification. Within this standby the communities remain outside of time and with restricted movement for reasons of protection.
The works respond to the formalism of the fortification, stays within it and use it as a starting point: order, organization, stiffness, reduction, restraint and a maximum level of control becomes a platform for playing and distraction from the concrete, to point out temporary aesthetics and non-functional in the ascetic space. The public shelter becomes a photographic-sculptural space, a studio.

Hadar Saifan grew up in Dafna, a northern border community located just a few minutes’ walk from Lebanon. Throughout her childhood she experienced frequent emergencies with her community, spending days and weeks in public shelters underground. Today, Saifan lives on the northern front line and responds to war events in real time using her camera.