Israeli artists put Hamas hostages in Gaza in the spotlight

"The photos of the hostages are all around the world," says Yifat Gurion, curator of the annual art fair Freshpaint in Tel Aviv.

Gurion is currently dedicating all her energies to raising awareness about the hostages abducted by Hamason October 7. And she's not alone. Israel's cultural scene is responding to the ongoing hostage situation with art events. 

In one installation, a long table is decorated with fine dishware; wine glasses and candles set as though for a traditional Shabbat meal. Family members normally gather here ― but the chairs on the square in front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art remain empty. They are reserved for the kidnapped hostages. It is a gesture intended to express that the hostages are still very present in the minds of Israelis.

Another art project was mounted on Safra Square in Jerusalem: Here, too, it looks as if people should be coming straight back. Some 230 beds are there, pajamas are waiting for their owners, and picture books lie on the bedside tables. "Empty Beds" is the name of the installation, which was set up by the organization Bring Them Home Now in collaboration with art students. Together they sang the national anthem, "Hatikvah," whose title means "hope." 

Keeping Hamas hostages in focus

Israel is a small country. Almost everyone knows someone affected by the massacre in which Hamas terrorists killed 1,400 people in Israel on October 7 or someone whose family members are now being held captive somewhere in the Gaza Strip. "This Is Us" is the fitting name of the art project for which the faces of the abducted have been rendered in paint on canvas.

"It's not a place of commemoration; the aim is to get awareness about the hostages," says Yifat Gurion. The art project that she helped initiate is a matter close to her heart and one that she wants to take beyond Israel's borders.

She feels the hostages are being forgotten, as the current focus is on the humanitarian situation in Gaza: "I really feel a deep sorrow for the innocent people of Gaza who are suffering," Gurion says. "But it seems that the world is missing the point that this is not retaliation and should not be retaliation. This is an effort to get more than 200 hostages free. So this is a very, very powerful and very important message that must be repeated."

How the hostage paintings are made

Artists from all over Israel and some from abroad took part in the project. In front of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, they created paintings of the hostages based on photographs.

Some 150 artists worked in two shifts, mornings and afternoons. They were highly focused and almost meditative, as though they were connecting psychically with their subjects.

One artist painted someone with the same name as theirs; another a person whose birthday it was. Speaking to The Times of Israel, artist Hodaya Gilad said that, the whole time she worked on a portrait of 18-year-old Liri Albab, she wondered what the young girl was going through ― and so felt as if she were getting to know her.

It wasn't just the artists who felt that way, but also passersby. There were emotional moments when people recognized friends or family members in the paintings. The square in front of the museum was unofficially renamed The Kidnapped and Missing Square.

'Gifts' for the Hamas hostages

"We said the aim is not to have any kind of exhibition," says Gurion. "We don't think it's the right thing to do with portraits of these people. We want to give [them to] the hostages themselves as gifts when they come back."

"This Is Us" is meant to be a sign of hope. Gurion is now storing the paintings at her home and uploading photos of them online.

"Social media are a very powerful tool to spread around and to make the project public in the world," she says.

Hope for hostages' return

Gurion continues to draw hope that the hostages will be released. "Right now, these times are dark. It's very hard to hang on to hope, it is hard. It's maybe even unnatural," she says. "But we don't have a choice."

Gurion says she grew up with stories of pioneers who came to Israel from Germany, Russia and other countries. "Not that they had much choice. Whoever didn't come to Israel was killed in the Holocaust. They came here, and I was born and raised in Israel. This is where I raise my children. These are my friends and family. When I see what happens around the world with the hatred of Jews and of Israel, it gives me the idea that we really have no other place."

Yifat Gurion does hope there will one day be peace and an end to the cycle of violence. In the meantime, she and others are committing tireless energy into bringing the hostages home, at least symbolically.

This article was originally written in German.