Zumu’s 4th stop (and last for now) in Kiryat Yam, which ended in January 2020, was the biggest, longest and most impactful stop so far. The  Kiryat Yam exhibition was the first to be staged in a large, heavily populated city, which borders the even bigger Haifa metropolis. Over 50,000 people came through its gates in less than two months.

The exhibition was hosted in a huge space in an abandoned supermarket, in the middle of the city’s industrial area, on the mythical Krayot road. The perfect positioning and the unique history of the building, which previously served as the first factory to produce ice in the north, and the fact that it was open seven days a week, drew thousands of visitors and participants and turned it into a creative meeting place.

Zumu’s massive exhibition in Kiryat Yam dealt with pathways, a subject that was drawn and reflected in both the display and design of the exhibition, from the commercial aisles in the supermarket, the nature of a place that served, and still does, as a transit city for new immigrants and people from the north looking for better housing, its transition from a coastal city to a concrete jungle, from its somewhat gloomy past to the promising future of the Krayot.

The exhibition invited visitors to wander the aisles, to stop in front of the artworks, collect experiences and impressions, and to participate in the creative stations and sitting areas scattered around the space. In the adjacent, also abandoned, refrigeration room, Gai Sherf presented his musical field.

The four artists, who participated in the Kiryat Yam, Zumu residency program lived, for a month, in the absorption center and created a series of works inspired by the city and the interactions with its communities. They developed a deep connection with the residents—veteran and newer—and the museum that it was hosting.

Zumu Kiryat Yam hosted all the classes in the city’s schools, many from the surrounding Krayot and even some from Haifa, turning it into a must-go venue. The public programming in the Kiryat Yam transferred “ownership” to the various communities that reside in the city and allowed them to host, present, with pride, and even teach parts of the cultural and artistic content in the “Pass it On” project that we initiated.

Participants:

Murjan Abo Deba // Mowada Abo Gaber // Rachel Anyo // Shay Id Aloni // Gili Avissar // Yael Bartana // Keren Ben Rafael // Avi Ben Zaken // Noam Clumeck // Flora Deborah // Mika Tal and Shira Dekel // Ira  duardovna // Tamar Ettun // Noga Yudkovik-Etzioni // Lali Fruheling // Tamir Bashi and Bar Flesch // David Gibbs, Sharon Glazberg // Aviv Grinberg // Shir Handelsman // Oded Hirsch // HQRN (Guy Karlinsky, Anna Dubinsky, Hadi Kalil, Shahar Sivan, Hila Chessen, Mashiah) // Orit Ishay // Tamar Katz // Gabi Kricheli // Avi Krispin // Michael Kogan // Sigalit Landau // Anna Lukashevsky // Dana Levy and Mary Mattingly // MoreSun // Hilla Toony Navok // Philip Rantzer // Goni Riskin // Mika Rottenberg // Elad Rosen // Simon Krantz and Yael Ruhman // Yechiel Shemi // Dina Shenhav // Gai Sherf // Dikla Shushan // Chen Varsano // Sharif Waked // Efraim Wasse // Revital Nahmias Yaari // Anna Yam // Noa Zeni

Zumu Kiryat Yam was made possible by the generous support of the Ted Arison Family Foundation, Mifal HaPais, Azrieli Foundation, Omer Tiroche Gallery, the Beyachad Foundation, B.A.F.I., U.S. Embassy, Kiryat Yam Municipality and private donors.