Jerusalem Design Week 2024: Exploring Resilience In The Face Of Catastrophe
From the Jerusalem Design Week exhibition “The Sea Remembers All.” JDW. “> To survive a flood, you need an ark. That’s the theme of this year’s Jerusalem Design Week (JDW), which explores the…
From the Jerusalem Design Week exhibition “The Sea Remembers All.” JDW.
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To survive a flood, you need an ark.
That’s the theme of this year’s Jerusalem Design Week (JDW), which explores the endeavors we make to preserve life and allow us to rebuild after a catastrophe precipitated by human evil.
The biblical story of Noah is all the more poignant in the wake of the Hamas atrocities, as Dana Benshalom and Sonia Ulitsky, chief curators of the event, are only too aware.
They were already planning this 13th annual edition of JDW – which showcases exhibitions, installations, events, and projects by designers from Israel and beyond – before October 7 changed everything.
They had, somewhat prophetically, chosen “The Flood” as their theme, ahead of the massacre that Hamas refers to as Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
“We were thinking about climate change and about political and social issues,” Benshalom tells ISRAEL21C. “And we were thinking about aspects of technology – floods of information and multiple opinions. It felt like we were flooded with everything.”
After October 7, they switched their focus from the flood to the ark, which was a timeless symbol of refuge and resilience.
“It was July 2023 when we gathered to choose the theme for this year, and we chose The Flood,” says Benshalom.
“It came from a general notion we had that it felt like we were about to hit a boiling point. We changed the name after October 7, and we also change the perspective.”
JDW 2024, which runs from September 19 to 26, is a free event that gives space to around 80 designers to explore a theme through creative work – in this case how we can begin to heal and redesign our future after a flood.
