'Someone Sang It Before'/׳מישהו שר את זה קודם׳

"Someone Sang It Before" Exhibition | Outline Festival 2023 Presented across Jerusalem's Light Rail stations, the exhibition sought to harness the comforting power of art and music in response to the events of October 7th. My contribution was an illustrated interpretation of Ehud Banai’s song “In Another Wheel”. As shared in an interview with Israel Hayom: After that Saturday on October 7th, I asked myself how one could foster a sense of optimism and connection when the heart feels empty and untethered. The answer came to me: by imagining. Imagine strongly. Imagine trees, flowers, a pink sunset... Imagine a place we can go to learn the art of peace. Perhaps a flying fish that takes us there, beyond the mountains, teaching us tried-and-true methods for releasing heavy thoughts. Ehud Banai, for me, is an artist who brings me home. In his song, he imagines a frog and a princess, a bird, and a smoked fish (he doesn’t recall everything), but most importantly, he imagines the arrival of love. In the early days of the war, I felt as though all the paradigms and stable structures in my life were crumbling, leaving me with nothing to hold on to. The only thing that brought me some relief was diving into creation. It may sound melancholic, but art is a tool; when we manage to sit with our pain and use the tools we have to express it, we create a space for healing. After a long creative hiatus, I found myself illustrating again. When creating the poster, I had to figure out how to evoke emotions that were the complete opposite of what I was feeling. Yet I knew how crucial it was to foster an optimistic and connective space. Illustration, for me, holds an internal door to that space. It allows us to imagine, play, connect worlds, and permit ourselves to create strange, fascinating, and, above all, comforting alternatives.