The Train Track (Hamesila) Park, Jerusalem

Years: 2007-2018

With: Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, as part of the course: Art and Activism in the Public Space

Location: Katamonim/Gonnenim and Beit Safafa Neighborhoods, Jerusalem

Lecturers: Eldad Cidor, Lea Mauas, Diego Rotman, Eytan Shouker

One of the strongest and most rewarding outcomes of the course "Art and Activism in the Public Space," was the relationship that developed between the students and the residents of the Katamonim/Gonnenim neighborhood in Jerusalem. For more than a decade we worked together and created a series of projects which succeeded in convincing the Jerusalem Municipality to scrap its plans to pave the designated Highway 34 through the neighborhood. Instead, a walking and bicycle path was created as the Train Track Park.

For further reading...

Our first activity was The Green Stain project, which brought to the attention of the residents the municipal plan to pave Highway 34 through their neighborhood, continued with The Hedgehog Route (the student Guy Eisner built a circular path in the neighborhood that presented stories about it at various places along the route) and the infrastructure for a giant maze, led to the creation of an integrated platform for the neighborhood artists and the students, and culminated in the production of the film Tearing Down the Wall, which convinced the Jerusalem Municipality to create an opening in the wall that it had built, which had blocked the access of the neighborhood children to a playground.

The art activism projects challenged the Jerusalem Municipality and achieved not only a change in policy toward the Katamonim/Gonnenim neighborhood, but led the Municipality to collaborate with the course at Bezalel to develop unique street libraries along the path of the Train Track Park. The outdoor libraries proved so popular among the residents of Katamonim/Gonnenim and the German Colony that we received a joint request from the Beit Safafa community council and the Jerusalem Municipality to plan and erect a street library in that Arab neighborhood as well, adjacent to Katamonim/Gonnenim.

The processes of planning and building the library in Beit Safafa were complex, lengthy and fascinating. A group of students worked for months with the group of residents of all ages from Beit Safafa and as a result of the ongoing dialogue a completely new style of library was planned, imbued with the spirit of the cooperation: A local welder built the library and together with the neighborhood children and youth, the students built flower boxes and created a floor decorated with arabesques which was painted on the pavement in front of the library.

The film documents, reviews, and describes the legendary course, "Art and Activism in the Public Space," at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. For a decade, Solly Elfaks follows art activism projects that are collaborations between art students and residents of the Gonnenim/Katamonim neighborhood in Jerusalem, in the struggle to save the Train Track Park.

For further reading...

The projects include creating an alternative to the planned highway, interventions in the public space, bringing down walls, and the design and construction of street libraries which operate 24/7 and have become a Jerusalem neighborhood icon. The film comprises documentation of work processes and outcomes, interviews with lecturers and students at the art academy and with residents of the neighborhood directly affected and of the adjacent Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa. It poses questions about the relationships between the academic world and the community, art and activism, and the right to public space as part of the struggle for equal rights and to help communities to make their voices heard.

Street Library - German Colony

Tearing Down The Wall

Street Library - Beit Safafa

Street Library - Katamonim