New Homes in Israel and the Occupied Territories; Palestinia

Efrat Shvily's New Homes in Israel and the Occupied Territories is a series of black-and-white photographs of houses and neighbourhoods, which sometimes seem more like models than real buildings. In her desolate photos, Shvily does not make it clear whether the buildings were once inhabited and are now deserted, are currently inhabited or soon to be occupied. The series arose in reaction to the large number of new settlements that were realised in Israel in the 1990s. Because of the speed of this development, as well as the fact that construction projects are used as a means to occupy territory, the people seem to be estranged from the place and the land they live in. Shvily tries to capture this in her photos. The series Palestinian Cabinet Ministers is also being presented in Rotterdam. Shvily started work on this series before the Second Intifada (2000) and it remains incomplete. On show in Witte de With.