In Brief...

Eytan Shouker (born 1963) is an artist, activist, lecturer, researcher and expert in art-based community development.

Alongside his own artwork, Shouker initiates artwork and projects in collaboration with communities related to society and culture. In 1997 he initiated the Pen Pal Project , which was the personal photographed correspondence between 500 Israeli and Palestinian youths via postcards, which was also presented as an exhibition in Israel and abroad. In 2008 he presented the wide-ranging exhibition The Pyramid Game , the result of a decade of research, which explored the sociological and economic structure of the Israeli art world. Shouker is a senior lecturer and faculty member at the Photography Department of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. In 2004 he initiated the multi-departmental course at Bezalel entitled Art and Activism in the Public Space.[i] In 2014 he won that year's Shosh Berlinski Prize from the Israel Council for Higher Education for an Outstanding Lecturer in the sphere of academia-community.

From 2008 to 2012 he held the voluntary position of Chairman of the Professional Union of Artists in the Fine Arts in Israel, and until 2016 he was advisor to the organization and its liaison with the establishment.

Shouker researches the field of cultural policy and has published studies and reports on the subject in Israel and abroad. Between 1992 and 2015 he owned and operated a studio for photography, advertising and PR. In 2014 he created the YouTube Pyramid Channel and developed a television-style format for items related to the politics and sociology of art and culture.

 

[i] Over the years the course was taught in conjunction with additional lecturers: Eldad Cidor, Lea Mauas and Diego Rotman.