ARTTLV

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Workers rebuilding the tiled roof of the old house next to the rooftop. August.

Back to blogging, after another long break. Thanks to A for reminding me that I'm meant to be "archiving the city" and even for dangling the possibility of a mention in an important academic publication. I've also been taking a few more photos recently so here's a quick foray before we fly off the rooftop for a holiday.


Soviet/early Zionist style street art on Herzl this morning. September is art month in Tel Aviv and the ART TLV Biennale opened on Thursday. This wasn't one of the exhibits. We started by cycling down Rothschild Blvrd, one of several boulevards hung with hundreds of banners containing painting and photographs of Tel Aviv(for some reason can't find them now) . Then headed for the Betzalel gallery on Salame 60 where there was an excellent exhibition and we could wander into some of the studios of the resident artists.


One of the ARTTLV exhibition spaces was the cluster of Templer buildings at the foot of the mighty Neve Tzedek Tower. The theme had to do with urbanism (see site for details) and the totem pole like object in the foreground of the photo and the streams of tape hanging from the cassettes on the wall behind it (making a cityscape) are two of the exhibits. (guess you had to be there).

These old buildings have finally been restored as part of the deal that made the developers of the tower very rich. Under the original plans these three buildings were supposed to be for public use (such as the exhibition) but I hear that there are plans to rent them out as private cafes and galleries - we'll see.

This is what the entrance to one of the buildings looked like (taken from the inside). A few years ago we held a roudy, private Purim party in this same building (a friend connected with the project had the key).

Here's the couryard with the Templer building in the background and something artistic in the centre.


In Neve Tzek proper, the fight continues , the latest episode being another hearing of the District Committee , scheduled for Mondayto hear objections against devoting the planned Lieber building entirely to residential use without proper infrastructure. (See details below for Hebrew readers)

הזמנה לדיון בועדה המחוזית - מיגדל ליבר בואו להפגין ולהראות נוכחות בישיבת הועדה המחוזית, יום שני ה-14 בספטמבר בשעה 9:00 דרך מנחם בגין, קרית הממשלה, קומה 13 ת"א

Wall tile, Neve Tzedek, taken at twilight.

Last but not least, the wraps have come off no 6, upon which the rooftoop gazes, to reveal the first layers of plaster on this magnificent building. The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?


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