For 14 years, the 'Madrom' festival has been held in Ofakim, this year the organizers decided, after some deliberation, to hold it in the neighborhood of Mishor Hefen, which was hit hardest by the October 7 massacre.
"We see art as a powerful tool for the restoration, overcoming and rebuilding of our community, and believe that through it we can give expression to pain, memory and community" said Ofakim Mayor, Itzik Danino.
The events will include premieres, shows, meetings and cultural events in the streets, courtyards, houses and public areas throughout the neighborhood, and will include artistic projects developed especially for the festival - alongside tours, shows, talk evenings, stabilizers and representatives, including shows for children and youth.
Madrom events (Madrom Festival) for multidisciplinary art, founded by the Department of Culture - Creation and Production at Sapir Academic College, in collaboration with Ofakim Municipality - will be held for the 14th year.
The events work at the seam connecting art, culture and community, with a desire to create new forms in art and society.
The events are all based on collaborative and participatory art, which makes us all active in it, and in this way seeks to challenge the separation between the work and the audience.
Among the events, a commemorative installation for the city's victims, the creation and construction of a useful environmental sculpture that will become a public space, a special concert by the Israel Police Band in a salute to the Ofakim Police Station and the residents of the neighborhood, tours and stories in the Mishor Hagafen neighborhood, coping workshops led by art therapists, host homes, events in the south for children, A conversation with Zaka volunteers in Ofakim with musical accompaniment by Ehud Banai, a neighborhood salon and salon conversations, a show "Between Sderot and Jerusalem" by the musician Micha Biton and more.
A piece by Alma from the Kez conference/courtesy of those photographed
"The 'Medrom' events, held here in Ofakim for the 14th year, are not only fascinating cultural events, but also an opportunity to connect memory - with hope," said
Ofakim Mayor Itzik Danino
.
"This year, we are dedicating them to the commemoration process and to the memory of the difficult events we experienced, and we are holding them in the Mishor HaGafen neighborhood, which was hit hardest by the October 7 massacre. We see art as a powerful tool for the restoration, overcoming and rebuilding of our community, and believe that through it we can give expression to pain, to memory and communalism".
"We at Ofakim believe that art has the power to heal, unite and build bridges between people," Danino continued.
"Especially this year, events from the south constitute a platform that is exactly suited to these goals. Through workshops, performances and community projects - we connect the residents of the city, commemorate the heroism and mutual responsibility they demonstrated during the events of October 7, and rebuild a common memory and community resilience. This is a time to embroider again our social envelope, to perpetuate and grow back up, together, as a community."
To the south for children/official website, photo by Adi Sharaga
"Festival Madrom is a flagship project that provides a platform and a voice for creators in the horizons," added the president of Sapir Academic College,
Prof. Nir Kidar.
This year's 'Madrom' events will focus on the urban commemoration process of the loss and heroism in the city on October 7.
The festival will present the personal and community stories of the city's residents and especially of the Mishor Hagafen neighborhood.
Through art we will emphasize human strength, heroism, crisis and recovery and deal with the different ways of memory and recovery.
I thank the Ofakim municipality and the mayor, Itzik Danino, for the many years of cooperation, and for our right to take part in the complex and sensitive process of healing and commemoration.
" , but it was clear to us that we wanted and even needed to do something," concluded the director of "Events from the South",
Noait Zakai
. "From meetings with residents of the city already at the beginning of October, we realized that precisely these days art and culture play a critical role in the restoration process, and that the strength of the community In Ofakim, the mutual guarantee and friendship in the city - they are the ones that will lead us in the action.
We chose to hold all the events, including long-term projects, in the heart of the Mishor Hagafen neighborhood, to try to integrate into the new fabric of life in the neighborhood, and to use the capabilities and possibilities that art produces to offer the creation and construction of the new - and at the same time also to give space and space to all the good that is in the neighborhood."
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