Enjoy the official opening of the photo exhibition and meet the artist behind the art!
About the event:
What happens when an artist lets go of her traditional upbringing and tries to find the deeper story of her roots? France based photographer Anne left her orthodox upbringing and the religiously conservative neighbourhood of her parents in Jerusalem for the art world of Paris. Her work takes her further, to Morocco, where her father was born.
On Friday afternoon, we will gather in the foyer of the Podium Mozaiek to officially open the exhibition that is on display during the festival! Come join us for an insightful talk, meet the artist, and look at the photographs on display with fresh eyes…
Artist’s statement by Anne Simin Shitrit:
A person wants to get to the root of their existence. To the very essence of being. Understanding the self through the threads of history is almost necessary to the artist exploring the engine in her soul. As I grew up with an immigrant mother from Iran and a Moroccan father in an alienated society, my place in the world seemed to be impossible to figure, as an oriental human, a woman, an artist. Only when I have left home at the age of 14 and started my personal process of emotional and mental immigration, I was able to start to pave my own path and realize I have a place. The camera was, and still, functions like a breathing machine providing air to the plant that I am. This project reflects a process of breathing through the discovery of my own being, stretching the long path from Jerusalem to Morocco. I have decided to focus on exploring people through culture and legacy, especially from minorities and raising questions about the spirit of existence, opportunity versus deprivation, gender and sexuality, violence and connection, root versus displacement – with the hope of allowing who and what ever I capture to breath with me.
Bio:
The process of creating is essential for Anne Simin Shitrit, who lives constantly through discovering and exploring. Her goal is to reach a certain visual dialogue and aesthetic principles with a personal point of view, by deepening interactions with people and places.
Simin Shitrit grew up in an ultra-orthodox community in a Moroccan-Iranian family. This upbringing had gifted her with tools to examine the world within her and the outer one, as well as the tension between the two. At the age of 14, Simin Shitrit crossed the border to an unorthodox life, filled with independence, exploration and freedom. This border crossing was a rebirth to her, that had faced her with a gap, a constant state of not belonging, living between two worlds, a state of ever changing identity. A feeling it is hard to put in words therefore she grabbed a camera, where there are no words visualization filling. An important tool to reflect an inner process, a window to others that brings light back to her. Between maturity and femininity, gender and sexuality, personal and public, there are practices in which Anne asks questions on hybrid identity, alienation and migration in its different states and shades. Simin Shitrit is motivated from the sense of responsibility towards freedom, once she frees herself she can do the same for others, which makes her human research emotional and intuitive, where she keeps on asking questions on belonging, pain versus legacy and how the female eyes views masculinity in our times.