In 2012 I graduated my design studies at the Holon Institute of Technology. For my final project I chose my favorite subject, Urbex, which was not so well known in Israel at the time.
In the project, I wanted to include works by Israeli photographers who photograph buildings for preservation and abandonment in Israel, add a text with information about the structure and the preservation process, if there is one. Instead my project moderator asked “Why don’t you go and take pictures?”
So after the usual excuses were made (I don’t have a professional camera, I’m not a photographer, I don’t know where there are such buildings, etc.) I decided to leave my comfort zone and go take the pictures myself. I gathered information about the places, talked to some photographers, and accompanied a photographer who toured the ruined Tel Aviv Dolphinarium. I added text to the photographs and printed them on separate and unbound pages – so that each page of the booklet stands on its own, printed on thick paper, and can be hung at home with paper clips.
Here I present the finished product in its digital version.
In this booklet I would like to bring to the public’s attention the concept of urban exploration. While writing these lines, there is no Hebrew material on the subject, nor an exact definition of the term in Hebrew.
Urbex is in fact a historical exploration of a city’s gut, a discovery and exposure of hidden places, abandoned buildings – whether a private or public building, such as a cinema or hospital – places that are not at the center of the public consciousness and very few people visit.
I will seek to show the beauty of the abandoned, one that is not necessarily ¨adorned¨ with modern art (graffiti) but beautiful in its own right and thanks to the memory it carries.
