It begins by letting the gaze slide down from the far horizon to the pulsating life—to the wadi.

A wadi is a hydrologic geological formation, and a term in Arabic, Hebrew, and English describing different forms of seasonal flow, associated with areas with little precipitation. In Haifa, however, a wadi is also a mental state; the city's wadis are used for momentary respites from the routine, for various games, and for alternative community gatherings. At the same time, they also embed darkness, all sorts of waste, and complex ecosystems of flora and fauna, which exist in a world parallel to everyday life.

The exhibition addresses different manifestations of this alternate universe: the way in which the wadi shapes geologies of urban strata, influences infrastructural phenomena, defines cultural and psychological boundaries, and supports natural and human occurrences that constantly blur the outlines of urban settlement. The exhibition brings local phenomena and situations into broader discourses about cities, the environment, and the limits of being human. Artists and designers from Israel and abroad were invited to respond to the variety of situations that the wadi produces and to imagine new ecologies of coexistence between plants, animals, and humans.

Image:
Hicham Berrada
Les Oiseaux, 2014
HD-Video
(Video still)