Tel Aviv, 2004

After Midnight: A dispatch on the arts, technologies and cultures served by the Tel Aviv TLV Ben Gurion Airport.

What specifically about the medium of visual culture in the public domain essentializes an expression of Israeli identity? The absurd juxtapositions of images seen in the public domain project a very Israeli coexistence of polar micro-identities and temporally alternating expressions of self. The contemporary Israeli psyche can be characterized by a radically and intensely experienced questioning of the self, the self within the context of the state and religion, and the overwhelming question, What will happen to us?

Our Struggle against them/their Struggle against us

This municipal plaque-monument in Tel Aviv narrates a 1940-1947 conflict between pro-Israel militias and British troops. On its side is a contemporary bumper sticker with the words, "WE MUST LEAVE GAZA. IMMEDIATELY!" Is this juxtaposition an unselfconscious or "vernacular" statement expressing the politically active nature of Israeli society? Or is it an intentional and conscious direct statement about the looping of history, leading into revisionist anti-Zionism?

Conflict/Coexistence

This billboard stands at the Kasem junction, near the Green Line. The large second row of Hebrew graffiti is a pneumonic Kabalistic hymn that reads, "NA NAH NAHM NAHMAN M'OMAN"; the third row is Arabic, reading, "THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH AND MOHAMMED IS HIS PROPHET." These competing and dichotomous claims to total religious correctness deny coexistence. However, their physical form of expression on this billboard shows an active sharing of space, and their respective linguistic contents show a striking similarity.

Soldier/Civilian

The center image, among posters affixed to a jobsite scaffolding in Tel Aviv, is an ad for a student film titled Blue-and-White Collar: A Comedy of Roadblocks. Displaying beer, tanks, ecstasy pills, and a T-shirt that says "RAVE AGAINST THE OCCUPATION," it essentializes Israel's Generation X's frustration with the state, its acquiescence with and rejection of army service and national identity. Blue and white are not only social classes, but also the Israeli flag's colors, suggesting a growing professional and financial frustration in a socialist, war-ridden framework. The Israeli in the poster could potentially emigrate and be rid of reserve duty, but the fact that he remains in Israel represents a choice to participate in the collective national being. The frustration among Generation X-ers in performing an ideologically onerous job is matched only by their acquiescence and even support for their younger Generation-Y brothers or nieces participating in draft service. The two states of civilian and soldier are temporally alternating expressions of the same Israeli.

Micro-Identity/Collective Identity

A poster for a "Tropical Sex Show" at a club in the Tel Aviv Port is censored by a religious Jew's handwritten ad: "Painter for general works (security grates, doors, sills, etc.) Call Eran. B.S.D." (B.S.D. is an Aramaic acronym for "God-willing.") Eran chose to stamp his appeal to the public by covering the naked body's image. This scene juxtaposes two simultaneous affirmations of sexual and religious micro-identities, with complete indifference to the polar extreme's self-expression. Each identifies itself as part of the collective Israeli whole, but within it creates a micro-identity of, for example, the homosexual Tel Avivi, or the pious day laborer.

Nurturing/Destroying

"TNUVA FOR THE SAKE OF THE SOLDIER." Tnuva is a leading Israeli dairy company that distributes free dairy products and snacks to soldiers in this refurbished bus. The banner below it reads "WE MUST LEAVE GAZA. IMMEDIATELY!" The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) enforces a permanent, nationwide draft, so every citizen becomes part of it; this creates a national consciousness and identification that does not exist in nations with commissioned armies. There is this presence of support and nurturance for the soldiers within the context of exposing them to violence and death. The question arises whether this juxtaposition was...