Department of Photography
המחלקה לצילום
قسم التصوير الفوتوغرافي
David Adika is a photographer, artist, and Head of the Photography Department at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Jerusalem. A senior lecturer in the Department of Photography since 1999, he holds bachelor’s (BFA) and master’s (MFA) degrees from Bezalel.
David Adika’s work focuses on the visual and cultural facets of the local Middle Eastern space as a microcosm that reflects his social and family identity. His photographic corpus contains representations of various still life and portraits, blurring the boundaries between abstract conceptual language and lavish visual accuracy. Adika’s visual research explores intimate yet universal biographies, while the photographs unfold familiar and unfamiliar aspects of everyday life and highlight questions of taste and social status.
Adika has had many solo exhibitions in Israeli and international venues, among them Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Art Museum in Riga, Latvia, Bologna MUSEI, Casa Morandi, Italy, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, and Braverman Gallery in Tel Aviv. He has won many awards, including the Minister and the Emerging Artist Prizes from the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and the Jack Nailor Award for Photography. His photographs are included in many collections, such as the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Haifa Museum of Art, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Casa Morandi in Italy, the Knesset and private collections in Israel and abroad.
He lives in Jaffa and works in Jerusalem
Born in Poland. Olesh is Principle owner, managing partner and CEO at Kisselov Kaye Architects. Senior architecture lecturer at Oman- Bezalel. Former Senior Lecturer and Final Project Instructor at the Architecture department of Bezalel. An active member and competition judge in the IAUA. A founding member of the Rabbi Hanina neighborhood, an urban alternative and one of the most sought after neighborhoods in Israel’s central region.
Olesh’s works apply and concretize a unique interpretation of local architecture without imitating the past, but by merging the old with the new and exposing hidden treasures within the urban fabric. Over the course of the years, Olesh and his firm Kisselov Kaye Architects have acquired many areas of specialization in architecture and city planning. These bodies of knowledge were formed and deepened during the course of work on various complex projects. In addition to architectural design, the work in Olesh's office includes many unique studies ("urban study labs") that are undertaken as part of the design process.
These studies are an integral part of the work and support the consolidation of the architectural concept and the planning itself. The Urban Study Labs embrace interdisciplinary work with various bodies and organizations; surveys, community engagement facilitators, economical experts, marketing experts, engineers and so on. Theses symposiums enabling holistic decision making with public participation and a long-lasting relationship and interface between private practice and the architectural academic world and teaching.
Olesh pride himself on his professionalism, aesthetic sensibility and her expression of humanistic values. He advocates observation and attention, analysis, creativity and intellectual versatility in order to provide a finalized architectural work of art that is both functional and economical. Thea regards the Architectural discipline as a fertile ground composed of inseparable socioeconomic, cultural, technological and ecological elements. These elements are responsible for shaping the face of society and its future, creating (in the right hands) a platform of change, growth and pluralism.
Hadas Kedar is a cultural entrepreneur and researcher in the field of curatorship. She holds bachelor and master degrees in Fine Arts from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem and from the University of Middlesex in London, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Research Platform for Curatorial and Cross-disciplinary Cultural Studies, a joint program of the University of Reading (UK) and the Zurich Academy of the Arts in Switzerland. Kedar explores culture in areas distant from hegemonic centers, and focuses on curatorial and artistic acts reclaiming colonized and marginalized cultures in the Naqab desert. Kedar established “Arad Art and Architecture” residency program and “Arad Contemporary Art Center” in cooperation with the Arad municipality. She has participated in and curated exhibitions in Israel and abroad, including: “Summer Harvest” (Israel Museum, curator: Sarit Shapira), “Rulers” (Camden Arts Centre, London), and “Sipookation” (Kav 16 Community Gallery, curator: Irit Segoli). She has also chaired and participated in conferences on the relationship between art, politics, and the economy. These include “Art, Power and Knowledge” (Tel Aviv Museum of Art), “Protest and Art” (Israel Museum), and “Contemporary Political Art” (Van Leer Institute). Since 2019, Kedar has been the director and curator of “Studio Bank” – a temporary art complex in a building in Tel Aviv, comprised of work and exhibition space for over 40 artists from a wide range of disciplines.
