Gevere Ribka | Belay

Gevere
Ribka Belay

A communal garden, cultivated by local residents, thrives in the Neve David neighborhood of Haifa. The garden is divided into rows and small patches, each one planted with a different variety of vegetable or fruit. Over the course of a year, the artist Ribka Belay, who immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia in 1994, documented in the garden her father and the rest of the residents. The immigration from Ethiopia transformed the way of life of the newcomers, compelling them to seek new occupations and places of work, but in their heart and in their identity everyone was still a farmer (Gevere in Amharic). The garden gives them an opportunity to renew an activity connected to their cultural roots.

Ribka’s documentation gives a glimpse of the daily life of these farming men, who have formed a community in the garden over the years. The film and the photographs capture moments of sowing, irrigation, flourishing, harvesting, picking, and expressions of great pride over the produce that the garden yielded. In the center of the garden is the base for building a “Godjo,” a traditional Ethiopian house made of wood and mud. The structure remains unfinished to this day, but its half-built presence may symbolize a mid-point between the house there and the one here. Out of a yearning for roots and home, the neighborhood residents have tried to create an oasis, familiar and pleasant, a miniscule piece of the world to remind them from where they came and what their identity is.

The works in the exhibition record male figures who have struggled for decades with an unabated will to adjust to a new place. Ribka chose to document them here, understanding that they have built a place that allows them to work at something they are good at, a place where  they are able to create something new and reap the fruits of their success.

Exhibition curator Yifat Ashkenazi
Curator, The Space for Community Art Oz Zloof