triggerhappymedia

Under The Bombs
France/Lebanon/UK/Belgium, 2007
New York Premiere

A nice Lebanese man sat next to me in the half-empty auditorium.

“Why are you here?” he asked. “Are you Middle Eastern, or do you care about human rights?”

He told me that he recognized most of the people in the audience. They were all Lebanese, and all university professors.

Filmmaker Philippe Aractingi used real footage of the 2006 Israeli strikes against Lebanon edited together with a story played out by actors. I can’t say that Under The Bombs brought me any closer to understanding the conflict or the suffering caused by a history of war after war. But as the film opened with shots of explosions destroying buildings, I realized I had just watched people die.

I may have been sitting comfortably as usual behind a barrier of distance and privilege and a movie screen. But I still shook in my seat.

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Trigger: Under The Bombs official site; Human Rights Watch reports on the Israel - Lebanon Conflict

Israeli duo Vee Cee Creative are back again to spotlight an issue that hits them right where they live- the exorbitant cost of property in Tel Aviv.

Vee Cee were successful in getting noticed last year with their “Whores for Low Rent” project. They placed cardboard prostitutes around their neighborhood based on the idea that prostitution lowers property value and rental prices in an area. The problem with the campaign was that the artists did not also consider the serious causes and consequences of prostitution and sex trafficking.

So they decided to take a different approach. Dani from VeeCee writes:

“…the rising prices of rent, housing, land here in Israel brought us to make another thing (as you can see - it didn’t work - and we are still frustrated by the situation). We started selling land in boxes - to give a chance to everybody to be owners of land - and feel how it can be. Most people can’t afford to buy a piece of land with the insane prices here.”

The small containers of Israeli soil, guaranteed with a certificate of authenticity, are being sold in an actual shop and online. The fully functioning business is complete with storefront, product display, logo, website, blog, and T-shirts. All these elements work together with their slogan, and the message - that “everyone deserves to be a landowner”-is clear.

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Trigger: pieceofland.biz

VeeCee Creative are the two Israeli artists who staged a protest against the high cost of renting a place to live in their neighborhood. The project features life-sized cut-outs of prostitutes placed on sidewalks and hanging out on street corners.

The artists’ rationale behind the project is as follows:

“The prices of rent in tel aviv has become extremely expensive- and we are pushed to pimp ourselves to find a decent apartment at a decent price. We brought the world best real estate polluters to tel aviv: the whore (prostitutes, hookers…). It is simple: more whores in your neighborhood = lower rent prices.”

At first glance the execution is clever, but the design is thoughtless. Alternative forms of protest, culture jamming, or the general use of art or media to draw attention to injustices can be admirable if done correctly. Protesting high rental prices at the expense of denigrating prostitution- an incredibly serious problem with real social consequences- is not admirable. Nor is it actually effective to advance one issue at the expense of another.

Is it funny to see cardboard cut-outs of prostitutes? What about the real women that have inspired these caricatures?

I challenge these artists for their next experimental piece to do something that denounces the global sex trade. They could use their creativity to raise awareness of the exploited young women and men from poorer countries who become prostitutes after leaving home under the false pretense of being offered legitimate work in a more prosperous country.

This would involve thinking outside of the frat-boy prank box. If they can do it, I hope to read about it in Adbusters.

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Trigger: Adbusters