Portable Discussion
The project's aim is to raise the discussion about current issues
in the Middle East through an international art exhibition in
which jewelry is the chosen media.
Why jewelry?
Jewelry is an intimate art medium within the private and the
public space which offers a personal relationship and an
encounter between the wearer ,the viewer audience and
the actual jewelry. It is an invitation to start a conversation
and it can make a meeting possible. The body is a portable
show case and the wearer chooses what and how to exhibit on
him/her. Jewelry express the wearer character and sense of
humor, it acts as an extension to the wearer personality,
indicating his/her group of belonging, it is asking questions or
claiming its opinion about the reality in which we live in,
about our society, our surrounding and ourselves.
By wearing jewelries we attain communication.
Cause we care.
The region's history and present are seeded with continuous
violent national, ethnic and other conflicts. In many aspects
the Middle East is considered to be one of the most sensitive
and unstable regions in the world; strategically, economically,
politically, culturally and religiously. It is located in the
center of the international politics agenda. Its historical role,
its huge reserves of crud oil and its significance for the three
largest monotheist religions are usually taken as reasons for
the world's ardent interest in the region. But the attitude
towards the Middle East has pasted the point of a keen interest
in world affairs.
By now it seems clear that the Middle East is perceived,
especially by consumers of Western media, as the place where
world dramas converge, or - more accurately - collide. It is
almost the opposite of the Bermuda Triangle: everything that
happens there pops up on our radars.
What is the Middle East? What is the source of our attraction to
it? Is it just that it happens to be the most eventful place on
earth? What is the nature of our commitment to effecting the
future of the region? Do we really care about what goes on
there? Do we really care about what goes on anywhere that is
elsewhere? Do we care about the Middle East in a way similar to
the way we care about how people look at us? Do we care about
it the way we care about what people see in us?
What are we looking for?
The work should have an unexpected creative concept. The
jewelry pieces can express a belief, a wish, it can be a trigger
to start a discussion, raising questions, showing your opinions,
a teaser, a protest or what ever you find relevant to the topic.
Where to begin?
Suggested topics for studying and reflecting on the
Middle East theme:
- Human Rights: civil rights, political rights, social rights
- Economy, Society, Culture
- Religion, Minority, Nationality
- U.S and the West
- Orientalism, Colonialism
- Conflicts: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Israel-Palestine etc.
- Migration, Refugees
- Coexistence & Peace
About us
I Care A Lot is a not-for-profit, non-governmental group which
aim is to facilitate the dialogue between the diverse cultures.
I Care A Lot is a platform for contemporary jewelry art whose
aim is also to promote and raise its legibility as an art form by
dealing with current issues.
I Care A Lot was founded in Stockholm, Sweden 2009 by
Dana Hakim a jewelry artist and Yosef Bercovich a graphic
designer.