Maya Zehavi's work is based on a series of encounters with a group of veterans from the Upper Galilee in Kibbutz Kfar Blum. Zehavi introduced the participants to camera-less photographic practices that accompanied the early history of photography and have become an integral part of her own artistic practice, which explores the tension between the photographed image and the sculptural object. Together, they reproduced memories and moments from kibbutz life. Through storytelling, photography, and printing, places that once stood at the heart of the kibbutz—such as the dairy barn and the chicken coop, whose original functions have long since disappeared—are brought back into view.
 

The decision to print the cyanotypes on textile and assemble them into a tent-like structure recalls the temporary shelters of the pioneering settlements. The installation functions as a temporary structure carrying memories of settlement, movement, and rebuilding, drawing the viewer back to the formative ideas and values through which communities in the Upper Galilee shaped the landscape around them.
 

Created as part of the ZUMU Upper Galilee Community-Based Art Program.

Participants: Varda Almog, Nadav Aricha, Ronit Bar-Alon, Shulamit Barkan, Dalia Gavish, Orit Gelber, Michal Dadush, Leah Huber, Nitzan Rosenthal, Aviva Segal, Paulette Tzemach, Carmela Sagi, Iris Shay, Efrat Shalev, Avraham Schnebel.

Special thanks: The Upper Galilee Veterans Association, Zehavit Dromi, and Inbal Bagar.