Every citizen is a soldier on eleven months vacation. - Chief of Staff, Israel Defense Forces Israel is undergoing an identity crisis because for the first time in fifty years we have to look at ourselves in the mirror. We don't have the luxury any more of defining ourselves in terms of the enemy because we're not quite sure who the enemy is. Naomi Chazan, Knesset member The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, the ensuing change of government, and the slowing down of a peace process are events that have had a decisive influence on the political as well as cultural life of the country. In order to illuminate a society under stress, some artists confront and undermine cultural stereotypes, thus projecting a subversive or marginal point of view. Artists who are not as outspoken about social or political issues encode more subtle messages to convey the implicit danger in even the most apparently innocent aspects of daily life. As engaged citizens, Israeli artists understand that a work of art may not be ideologically neutral and that it can convey a particular position. The success of this art may be measured by its ability to express in palpable visual form the disequilibrium, ambiguity, and uneasiness experienced daily in Israeli society.
			Adi Nes Untitled, 1996 Color photograph Lent by the artist, Tel Aviv Placing Israeli soldiers in ambiguous and disorienting contexts, these fully staged photographs debunk stereotypes of masculinity and male camaraderie.