The Don’t dis my ability exhibit is the initiative of ISRAEL UNLIMITED – FREINDING, a strategic partnership of JDC Israel, the government of Israel, the Ruderman Family Foundation, and the Ted Arison Family Foundation.
In preparation for the Fresh Paint art fair 2020 we brought together people with disabilities and students from Bezalel Visual Communication Department into a shared creative process through a unique space of “Artivism” which combines art and activism aiming to smash stigmas about people with disabilities.
The creators recorded and illustrated the encounters they experienced through portrait photos. They focused the lens at the sexual elements which motivate each and every one of us, and shape who we are.
In contemporary western world, people display their sexuality as part of their personal and social identity. However, when it concerns people with a visible disability, there is a public restraint from such use of their sexuality.
Why is it a taboo?
The students chose to cope with this challenge precisely because it is so easily overlooked and marginalized. They directed a spotlight to the natural sensuality that exists in every human, as a human.
*The sentence Don’t dis my ability was at the center of an Australian anti-stigma campaign. We chose it in order to reach across boundaries to audiences all over the world.
The exhibit was created with the guidance of: Itai Ron-Gilboa, artist and graduate of Bezalel Visual Communication Department; and Zeev Engelmayer, artist, activist, and lecturer at Bezalel Visual Communication Department.
Workshop student participants: Yarden Teeni, Celia Garion, Adi Segenreich, Tal Meir, Imbar Shechter, Shai Fighel.
Thanks to the partners in creation: Anat Yachin, Yotam zora, Vital Zinger, Dana aloni, Samantha Menuha Bronstein, Rona Soffer, Elinohar Manche Binshtook, Yael Buechler, Dani Garmise, Almog Haviv, Avi Ban, Eliran Golan, Ofir Dahan.
