Dan Ozeri

EFES:EFES

category
Bronze Medal

jury statement

★★
Israel
★★

The black/white paperboard cover displays its striking title in bold letters from Modern Hebrew: Efes:Efes (Nil-Nil). The picture on the cover shows cloudy trails of vapour against a clear sky, as a column, as an arch. Traces of celebratory fireworks? Of rockets with warheads? This volume of photographs shows people, crowds of people. Men. Israelis, Palestinians. In black/white or in colour. Discovered in the State of Israel National Photo Collection, possibly filter results for the keywords football, military, attacks. This combination of a love of sports with mortal fear seems unsettling and daring – haphazardly cast out and playfully combined. Some examples: The troops sitting enthroned on a tank stretch their arms up; on a nearby picture bare-chested football fans wrapped in flags hang out of the sides of the decorated cars. Manifestations of pleasure, warning, triumph? – Or a snapshot of footballers waiting for the ball directly in front of the goal, as a panoramic image; a masked youth superimposed, reaching backwards to throw a stone. A controversial design affinity between the pattern on a Palestinian scarf and the net stretched in a (football) goal. Again and again, the view is disturbed, interrupted, distracted. The author/designer confronts the observer with a story that the latter may not want to hear expressed in words at all: a contradictory game about masculinity, energy, honour, competition, defence. A party game that ends in a draw, nil-nil.

★★

printing method
Old city print house, Jerusalem
design
Dan Ozeri