BY CHRISTA CASE BRYANT: THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR DECEMBER 11, 2013
Edgy exhibit asks Israelis to reconsider Syrian strongman Assad
In a country numbed by violence, Israeli artists eschewed gory images in favor of creative dissonance to unpack Syria's dictator.
It’s hard to say something new to Israelis about Syria's Bashar al-Assadafter more than two years of civil war in the neighboring country. But contemporary artists Yanay Geva and Lilac Madar have tried to do just that in an exhibition that features everything from a gas canister to a family photo of the Assads, placed on a lace-covered side table with a bowl of Arab sweets.
It is that dissonance, rather than any graphic depictions of war – all too common on the news here – that have really caused visitors to think, says Mr. Geva.
“We see horrifying images every day,” he says. “If we used the same tools as the mass media, we wouldn’t be able to achieve any impact… People are already immune against being shocked again.”
The Christian Science Monitor