Project Ashdod: exhibition structure as a reflection of urban environment

ABSTRACT

Informed by pioneering urban sociologist Robert Park, this study proposes a new layer of investigation of urban practices: the analysis of art projects. The unique story of Ashdod, a coastal city in Israel’s southern periphery, made it a fascinating case study for Project Ashdod, a multiscale art intervention. Ashdod, Israel’s first planned city, was moulded as an immigrant’s city, leading to its current segregated structure, with districts differing along ethnic and socioeconomic lines. Combining urban spatial methods with art content analysis, the article explores the different ways in which Project Ashdod reflects its titular city according to Park’s terminology.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Remarks of Daniel Shoshan and Amit Matalon at the opening of the exhibition, 15 November 2018. Founding artists of the Laboratory of Art and Experimental Architecture, an interdisciplinary research lab based within the Technion’s Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning.

2. For an elaborated discussion on the relationships between art and urban spaces please see previous works (Yavo-Ayalon 2019a, 2019b; Yavo-Ayalon, Alon Mozes, and Aharon Gutman 2020).

3. The booklet, Physical Planning in Israel, by Arieh Sharon’s planning team, was in fact Israel’s first master plan.

4. A planning ideology from the early 1900s whereby each neighbourhood was supposed to function as an independent unit, complete with public buildings, commerce, and education.

5. Interview with the artists, 1 December 2018.

6. In southern Israel, ‘Red Alert’ (tzeva adom) is the code word sounded by the region’s advance warning system for incoming rocket-fire.

7. Interview with the artists, 1 December 2018.

8. Interview with the artists, 30 October 2018.

9. Interview with visitor, 15 December 2019.