Kivun Mizrach Journal in Barbur
New exhibition in Barbur
On Friday August 17 at 12:00
New exhibition opening in Barbur
Coerced Choice
Participating in the show: Ariella Azoulay, Eitan Bouganim, Hanna Ben Haim, Noa Ben Shalom, Lilah Bar Ami, Vered Dror, Yossi Davara, Lea Golda Holterman, Nitsan Hammerman, Yoav Weiss, Masha Zusman, Nili Tal, Galia Yahav, Arie Kan, Nomi Levenkron, Linda S., Lauren Milek, Avi Sabah, Yanai Segal, Noam Fridman, Eilat Zin, Hagit Keysar, Annette Kleinfeld Lissauer, Shula Keshet, Uri Radovan, Atalia Shachar, Roee Rosen, Ayelet Shimoni, Hotline for Migrant Workers, “We are worthy”, Awareness Center (Machon Toda`a)
Our thanks to: Idan Halili, Linda S., Dr. Orit Kamir, Dr. Ariella Azoulay, Roee Rozen, Dr. Zvi Triger, Eitan Shoker, Liad Kantarovich, Dr. Esther Eilam, Idit Harel Shemesh, Galia Yahav, Shula Keshet, Elad Orian, Oded Yedaya, Rotem Levy, Yotam Feldman, “Ahoti” movement, Hebrew University Law Department, The Israely Center of Digital Art in Holon, Bezalel Art Academy.
Special thanks to Att. Nomi Levenkron
The sheer scope of the phenomenon of prostitution is enormous. Thousands of women are trafficked as goods. There are Hundreds of thousands of consumers of sexual services and many millions of Shekels change hands regularly through the purchase of sex. Prostitution is a constant absent-presence in our daily lives. Language is saturated with it and so is art but those playing an active part in real sex trafficking, men and women are concealed from the public arena. They walk among us invisible, they are always someone else, distant and hidden. Prostitutes, by definition, are subject to harsh social stigma and are excluded from the everyday, proper and sane order of society and are catalogued as the embodiment of all that is evil, weak and rotten. They are always tagged as others – “Russians”, drug addicts, transvestites… however an in-depth look reveals a much more diverse picture. Some prostitutes are from Moldova, others are born Israelis, some are junkies living on the street but some are women who earn as much as any well-paid public official. Whether they express that they chose prostitution willingly or whether they were forced into it by coercion, violence or any other form of mental or economical distress, they are forced to live with the stain of public denouncement that will be with them for the rest of their lives. Those who consume sexual services are also hidden from the public eye or are often represented in the form of others – Arabs, orthodox Jews or foreign labor workers. Here again, further research reveals that sex clients can be found anywhere on the spectrum of Israeli society – Immigrants, born Israelis, secular, religious, menial laborers, executives, free-lance professionals and celebrities.. All of them frequent prostitutes. In view of all this our society’s attitudes towards prostitution are two-faced. The sex worker is a prostitute, i.e. cursed, but the sex client is a customer and as such seems to be operating within his rights, the same as any other client in a normative consumer culture.
The public debate over prostitution suffers from the same concealment and double standard. On the one hand it touches, on the practical as well as philosophical level, on serious questions from our daily lives – what is allowed and what isn’t? What are the limits of our personal rights and freedoms? On the other hand it suffers sweeping and often binary generalizations as a result of a single and fixed viewpoint that seeks a single solution – legalization or eradication. For the most part the voices of the sex workers themselves are absent from the debate.
This exhibition is an attempt to portray at least a fraction of this complex subject while shifting the focus from the sexy and seductive imagery to the social mechanisms that enable the concealment of the daily plight of sex workers from the public agenda, and the driving force behind prostitution and sex trafficking, i.e. the clients. We have attempted to cast a sensitive gaze that will attain a certain complexity. A look that will not subjugate itself to moralistic dichotomies but that at the same time will reflect the very real pain and suffering that exist both in the street and the luxury apartment.
One thing that seems to be certain is that society is responsible for the condition that its prostitutes are in, that is to say the condition and well being of the real people behind the labels. At the moment our society is hypocritical in its attitudes towards prostitution and prostitutes. Society’s responsibility is to try and fight stigmas and to include sex workers as equals who deserve equal rights, and to work towards the creation of social and economical conditions that will enable, perhaps in the future, a possible discussion about free choice for the women who choose to sell their body as a livelihood.
The real question is how to translate this complex and sensitive gaze into action, deeds and decision.
The oldest client in the world
Download:
Recording of the Lecture by Dr. Orit Kamir Pornography, Cinema and Consumerism
Recording of the Lecture by Roee Rosen About Art as Prostitution and the Question of Pleasure
