Pro Jerusalem - 100 Years of Conservation

Co-curated and research with Alexandra Topaz and Hadar Porat. The exhibition was part of the Jerusalem Design Week, Hansen House, Jerusalem. JDW artistic director: Anat Safran, chief curator: Tal Erez.

In the Spring of 1918, Ronald Storrs, the first British governor of Jerusalem, founded the Pro-Jerusalem Society. This society built, created and promoted the city’s image and defined a municipal conservation program that had not existed before then. Its power and influence derived from the variety of people who were its members: representatives of all religions in the city, artists, planners, government officials and citizens. Its activities were reflected at different scales – from the smallest object to comprehensive urban planning. In this way, the Pro-Jerusalem Society developed Jerusalem according to its imagined vision, which was sometimes designed by adopting foreign ideas and sometimes by observing what already exists. During the four years of its operation, the society carried out its vision and shaped the city as we know it – the image of Jerusalem as it is today, is only 100 years old. This historic exhibition reveals an unfamiliar chapter in the history of Jerusalem and offers a refreshing look at the next 100 years in the city through the eyes of six designers who are responding to the design efforts that the Pro-Jerusalem Society produced in the city.

The exhibition was accompanied by public tours, children activity and evening lectures.

Participating designers: Oded Ben Yehuda, Grotesca Design, Rami Tareef, Ofri Lifshitz, Magenta Workshop, Major Major Major Studio – Yftah Gazit, Amir Argov and Shir Senior, Eliad Michli and Avior Zada.

In conjunction with: The Center for Urban Design – the Model House, the Conservation Policy Team: the planning manager and the conservation department in the Jerusalem Municipality, Groag-Harel Architects, Ran Wolf Urban Planning and Project Management Ltd. Thanks to:  American Colony Archives, Dr. Nirit Shalev Kalifa, Rockefeller Museum Archives. Graphic design by Tal Sofia (for Field Day Design Bureau).

Xnet article
Elle Decor article
Designboom
Database for Jerusalem preservation (He)
Pro Jerusalem Society Book (1918-1920)
Jerusalem Design Week website
Haaretz (He)

[exhibition, archive, objects]