By Bonnie Boxer
The history of Museum on the Seam (MOTS) is written on its once very elegant façade. Originally the home of a Palestinian family, it became an Israeli army outpost, from 1948 until 1967, on the dividing line between West and East Jerusalem, Israeli Jerusalem and Jordanian Jerusalem. When the building was refurbished, to reflect its history and as a reminder of the cost of war, the entrance was left broken, the windows boarded up and a row of sniper holes still in place. But the museum the building contains has been reinvented more than once.
In 1983, led by Mayor Teddy Kollek and the von Holtzbrinck family, it became a museum depicting the story of Jerusalem’s division and reunification. The Jerusalem Foundation supported conversion of the structure for museum use as well as its content and program development through the years. In 1999, its agenda was recreated and dedicated to dialogue, understanding and coexistence. Since 2005, it has been a museum of social and political art, using the language of contemporary art to showcase social and political issues. It was the first such museum in the world and remains the only such museum in Israel.
MOTS seeks to provoke public consciousness and conscience by highlighting issues of relevance to Israeli society, like tensions and encounters among Jerusalem’s diverse populations – Arab, Jewish; secular, orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jewry – as well as ecology, women’s rights, workers’ rights, minority rights, the loneliness of life in the technological 21st century, protest movements of the past 50 years, pluralism, liberalism and more. It shows the work of both Israeli and foreign artists and, therefore, the exhibitions feature issues relevant in both Israel and elsewhere around the world.
In addition to a repertoire of five or six exhibitions a year, MOTS offers guided tours, panels, gallery talks and workshops for the public. MOTS has an ongoing relationship with all the art-related schools in Jerusalem and Israel, making its facilities, like its library and rooftop café, available to young artists.
Located on the seamline between highly varying Jerusalem populations, the museum draws energy from the contrasts and conflicts of the surrounding neighborhoods while also respecting their way of life. For example, as it is adjacent to an ultra-orthodox neighborhood, the museum is closed on Shabbat/the Jewish Sabbath and religious holidays. This reflects MOTS’s core values of respect for other communities.
MOTS believes and demonstrates that art is a language with no boundaries and that a museum can impact issues of significant social concern.