Mural in Ramat Yosef Shopping Center by Untay
As part of the 2022 Good Deeds Day, which focused on the Ramat Yosef neighborhood, the museum commissioned two new artistic interventions in the nearby shopping center.
“I have been living in the neighborhood for thirty years. Today was the first time I sat down and talked with people I have been seeing in line for the ATM for decades.”
Rammy Dahari, a café regular
Graffiti artist Untay created a mural comprised of a graphic composition and a portrait of a woman. All the columns in the shopping center were repainted in a color palette that corresponds with the mural.
Artist Tomer Fruchter converted an empty shop at the center into Yossi Café – a pop-up café that operated for 48 hours. The neighborhood residents and municipal employees gave lectures and organized different events at the café.
“There’s no café in Ramat Yosef shopping center. If you insist, you can sit at the bakery’s tables or buy coffee at the grocery store, but a café-chairs-tables-waiter-newspaper is not a lucrative thing around here. Yossi Café responded directly to this reality. I thought about serving coffee as a mechanism of gathering and lingering, and about the café as an open space that allows spontaneous social encounters.
Tomer Fruchter, artist and owner of the (Original) Yossi Café
During the café’s single day of operation, we created a “regulars” wall with photos of the café’s patrons. The photos were taken in collaboration with the barista Tomer Feigin, who came to the shift with a digital pocket camera. The photos were quickly printed on a simple printer paper and expertly mounted on the storefront by one of our regulars, Nadia.
We had a very positive response from people. I could see that they almost couldn’t believe they now have something like this where they live. Anyone who passed by and was going somewhere later came back to sit in the café. That feeling, that someone sees them and their needs, this is what we were trying to achieve. It was exhilarating to realize that it worked. The initial suspicion and invasive feeling of art that planted itself in the middle of the neighborhood disappeared.”
