Osnat+Bar-Or

Osnat Bar-Or Baror_@netvision.net.il 972-77-200-3933, Pardes-Hanna

I am an artist (photography is my tool), and an activist in the realms of education, feminism and political justice. My photographs of schools, a large body of images of public school in Israel, characterize the architecture and visual text of schools, brining critical views such as the ideology of education, participation and citizenship of children, teachers and parents, inequality of resources, violence, and other issues concerning the education system in Israel and the need for a change. The project is called בית,ספר ('Home, Book', meaning in Hebrew a 'School'), was published as a book and solo exhibions at two major museums in Israel simultaneously. Recently, another chapter of the work was published in a book of Avney Rosha, along with stories fo school principlas.

Together with my colleagues, I integrates art and activism for social change in community work, NGOs and within the art scene itself.

I am the co-founder and resources developer of Al-Bir (The Well)- Cultivating Culture and Community, Wadi Ara (A Palestinian community within Israel). The organization is run by Palestinian women and runs a community cultural center for women and youth. Until recently, I was also the co-director of Parrhesia group of artists and designers, working for just peace, and the presence of Arabic language and the Palestinian Nakba within the Israeli public sphere. Previously, I was the head of the photography department of Camera Obscura School of Art, Tel-Aviv.

Some thoughs after our session regarding Community of Practice, which to me was very inspring!

The contribution of art, and cultural work in general, to participatory social affairs and to developing active and meaningful citizenship could be understood through some of the practices that artist use:

- Independent and critical thinking

- Courage and freedom

- Creativity, exploration and playfulness

- Entrepreneurship

Artist have room to develop and explore  ideas, visions, identities, narratives, discourses and utopias. Artists make stories, they tell stories, his-tories and hopefully her-stories sometimes.

Artists deal and negotiate with different bodies on many levels such as ideas, feelings, stories, the levels of materials, craftmenship, aesthetics, presentation and representation, in as much as levels of production, timetable, resources, deadlines, PR, etc.

Artists have room to explore with different forms of dialogue, to makes some cracks within a frozen discourse, using images, voices, gestures, new and old ideas.

The practice of art makes us be experienced living within the tension of individuality and the need for a dialogue with audience, thus continuously develop dialogue between self and community, cultivating ouir individual and collective identities..

The practice of art gives us a stage (with the amplifiers of the media), allow us to elaborate our voices, a space to tell our narratives. At times, depending to a great extent on the context of our identity, and level of participation, we are being heard, and we might influence our realities.

Being self motivators and hard workers sometimes help leading us to fruitful participation.