28 Millimeters Poster Project in Israel/Palestine

Being with JR and crew for the Jerusalem portion of the Face2Face project at Abu Dis (yesterday) and in Jerusalem's city center (tonight) was a great honor for poe ( www.flickr.com/photos/_poe_ ) and I ( www.flickr.com/photos/idiotthewise ). www.idiotthewise.com covered the Face2Face project's beginnings from afar gaining inteviews and video footage from their website...when we heard that Face2Face project will be here in Jerusalem, we knew that we had to show our full support. We have been together with JR and crew since meeting at the separation wall in Abu Dis , 20 min. from Jerusalem city center...during the project's early start on Wed. a man, Kadik Essa jumped from the highest point on the wall (it was the only point of the wall without razorwire). He fell 2 1/2 stories where he injured (broke?) his back and his leg...more on this later, its a sensitive subject to us still...
The project carried on..JR and crew mannaged to paste a total of 14 bigger-than-life faces on a city block's distance of the wall!!!
We all got a bit of extra sun and pate on us that day...international media was there to cover the event and provded basic protection from any who might try to stop the posters from going up...
...the thing that touched me about the project was the children's reaction to the faces...they no longer looked at that wall with those same hateful eyes...i believe i saw a glimmer in a few of the children's eyes that could see the future...they were smiling, already living in a reality without separation...they gave me real hope that if children can envsion happiness and unity so easily...why can't we all?

We met up with the Face2Face crew the next day (today) in Jerusalem...we must have pasted 20 posters with them all over the downtown area, showing them all the best spot for the posters to go...we found so many great locations...many pictures coming soon of the downtown Jerusalem pastes but for now , check out what happened yesterday at the separation wall on the Israeli side...
click this link below to see Face2Face photoset from the day's pasting at the separation wall at Abu Dis:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/idiotthewise/sets/72157594575580740/

-Idiot the Wise (aka: SEVEN)

Here's the original invitation:

From the Face2Face website:

"When we met in 2005, we decided to go together in the Middle-East to figure out why Palestinians and Israelis couldn't find a way to get along together.

We then traveled across the Israeli and Palestinian cities without speaking much. Just looking to this world with amazement.

This holly place for Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
This tiny area where you can see mountains, sea, deserts and lakes, love and hate, hope and despair embedded together.

After a week, we had a conclusion with the same words: these people look the same; they speak almost the same language, like twin brothers raised in different families.

A religious covered woman has her twin sister on the other side. A farmer, a taxi driver, a teacher, has his twin brother in front of him. And he his endlessly fighting with him.

It's obvious, but they don't see that.

We must put them face to face. They will realize.

We want that, at last, everyone laughs and thinks when he sees the portrait of the other and his own portrait.

The Face2Face project is to make portraits of Palestinians and Israelis doing the same job and to post them face to face, in huge formats, in unavoidable places, on the Israeli and the Palestinian sides.

In a very sensitive context, we need to be clear.
We are in favor of a solution for which two countries, Israel and Palestine would live peacefully within safe and internationally recognized borders.

All the bilateral peace projects (Clinton/Taba, Ayalon/Nussibeh, Geneva Accords) are converging in the same direction. We can be optimistic.

We hope that this project will contribute to a better understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.

Today, "Face to face" is necessary.
Within a few years, we will come back for "Hand in hand".

As previously posted...Thanks to Delfo ( http://www.delfo.altervista.org/ ) for the original link to the
28 millimetres project by JR and Ladj Ly was made in the french ghetto.
more infos about the project http://28millimetres.com or http://jr-art.net

"The photographer-activist, JR, converts his pictures into posters and transforms our streets into universal open-air galleries. From Los Angeles to Berlin, he keeps his independence and illegal exhibits in the streets, which he considers to be his very own gallery.

After his first guerrilla exhibition on the walls of Montfermeil's ghetto's (93/370) in 2004, JR settled down right in the heart of the district collaborating with Ladj Ly, inhabitant of the ghetto, actor and director from the collective, Kourtrajmé.

Armed with a 28 mm lens, JR shot full frame portraits of young people from this neighbourhood and the nearby district of
The Forestière (Clichy-sous-Bois, 93). This no frills, straightforward
technique allowed them to get very close to this generation.

Interviewing them, without restrictions, on the recent events of
November 2005. The first portraits were illegally pasted on the east
walls of Paris, a district that was once run-down, but has now become a residency for the bourgeois bohemian, who are shielded from the flames.

With a certain « in your face » rudeness, they provoke passers-by and question the social and media representation of a generation that people only want to see outside the doors of Paris or on the news. The Book 28mm - portrait of a generation, is a collection of the 28 most meaningful portraits from the whole series.

Also included are some on the spot shots of moments shared with the young people of The Forestière, as well as several actions shots from the streets in 2005." - " Emile Abinal "

idiot the wise