In Morel Derfler’s photograms, one may discern a line marking the ground. There is little terrain above it, and multiple depth layers below, teeming with action, containing an element of reality with conspicuous signs of conflict.
Derfler, an artist and a lecturer at the Musrara School, was killed in a suicide bombing at the Nahariya train station in 2001. The exhibition was constructed as a dialogue with his oeuvre. The featured works examine the way we observe the local space and formulate a narrative for ourselves, characterized by slow, gradual refinement of the gaze at the geopolitical sphere in Israel.

Following the October 7 tragedy, communities from the country’s south and north were evacuated to various locations throughout Israel at an unprecedented scale. This complex situation required the construction of alternative education systems for schoolchildren who study far from home.

At the initiative of the Musrara School and the Trump Foundation, the exhibition “Migratory Schooling” features ten projects by artists who documented the children, faculty, and the spaces which were transformed into temporary classrooms for the evacuees, using photography, video, text, and sound. The exhibition explores the architecture of the makeshift learning spaces as well as the teachers and students, who migrate between geographical locations. It seeks to make the voices of these communities heard and draw attention to different aspects related to education in wartime.

Participating communities: Kiryat Shmona • Metula • Shlomi • Upper Galilee Regional Council: Kibbutz Dan, Kibbutz Dafna, Kibbutz Kfar Giladi • Mateh Asher Regional Council: Arab al-Aramshe, Liman • Ma’ale Yosef Regional Council • settlements in the Upper Galilee and Western Galilee • Sderot • Ashkelon • Eshkol Regional Council: Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Kibbutz Kissufim, Kibbutz Magen, Kibbutz Yevul, Kibbutz Be’eri, Kibbutz Holit • Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council: Kibbutz Gevim, Kibbutz Or HaNer

Locations: Lake House Kinneret Hotel, Tiberias • GeviMizra, Kibbutz Mizra • Ramot Primary School, Haifa • Kibbutz Shefayim • NYX Hotel Tel Aviv • Solarium Dead Sea • Shibli Agricultural Farm, Umm al-Ghanam • Abraham Hostel, Tel Aviv • Enjoy Dead Sea Hotel • Mashiv HaRuach School, Bnei Akiva Ulpanit, Tel Aviv • Schools around the Sea of Galilee • Hotel Yehuda, Jerusalem • Orient Hotel, Jerusalem • The Kerem Institute for Humanistic Jewish Education, Jerusalem

We would like to thank the Trump Foundation; the Ministry of Education’s spokesperson’s office; the heads and faculties of the various spaces, who generously allowed the artists to enter their communities and enabled them to document the activity in the learning spaces. Thanks to all the individuals who were involved in the project and the many students who cooperated, told their stories, took pictures, and were photographed

Read about the exhibition on Portfolio Magazine

The Musrara Art Gallery is due to present this month a part of the 2023 Graduates Exhibition.