When I was in Palestine and Israel last January the political situation was very tense. The war in Iraq was about to begin, a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv took place some days before my arrival and in my first night in Khan Younis seventy Israeli tanks drove into the centre of the city leaving behind misery and distress (see previous travel-report).

Now the Hope Box has arrived here for the second time this year, it is summer and maybe even politically a new season can begin. At this moment there is a truce and a peace-process. A fragile peace-process since there is little faith in Sharon's good will and people are not confident about the strength and perseverance of Abbas. Most people are sceptical but at the same time they cherish hope. Palestinians and Israelis are fed up and yearn for peace.

The Hope Box and in particular Tigerpaws in the Fishglobe are here for the occasion of the Gaza City Kite Festival. A very special event because since the second Intifada it has been impossible to organise this festival. Hope Box is invited by mr. Abu Isa, dr. Anton Shuhabar and mr. Isa Saba of the YMCA Gaza City and the Holland Office for Personal Encouragement. This time photographer Ronald de Hommel helps me to carry & bring the Hope Box.

As soon as we arrive in Gaza City we pick up the kites and rush to the beach, because the kite-festival is about to begin! For the first time in three years Palestinian children fly their kites and it is a spectacular sight! Hundreds, maybe a thousand kites fly in the sky while beneath them the happy faces speak volumes. I hesitate to fly our kites because the sky is pretty full and our kites are big and somewhat ponderous. Eventually we fly in the sky as well harmoniously between the Palestinian Kites. It is a wonderful day and it is way after sunset when the last kite has vanished from the sky.
That night I discuss the program for the coming week and future plans with Abu Isa and Fayiz Sersewr (artist and head of the art-department). Next to performing the Tigerpaws in the Fishglobe this week will be mainly a try-out for the big hope box exhibition and event we hope to bring to Gaza City next year. Of course it will all depend on the situation at that time and logistically it will be a challenge but we decide to go for it, Inshalla.

The next morning we arrive early at the YMCA Art Department. Weather Reporter Hazem Harb has already arrived. He introduces me to Majed Shala, an artist and his former teacher. Together with Hazem, Majed and Fayiz the hope box preview exhibition is mounted and the Tent of Kites is set up in the exhibition-space of the YMCA Art Department. Although I always make a program and planning at forehand, it is evident that what the hope box has to offer depends on the imaginative power of all participants on the spot. In dialogue a made to measure plan comes into being. After lunch we visit Hazem's house to see his new work. His most recent series is incredibly wonderful, a pounding heart bursting from the paper. It is amazing to see what Hazem at the age of 22 is capable of.
Back in the exhibition-space, Hazem introduces me to Alaam M.N. Alsrawy. Alaam is a theatre-man as he himself puts it and will be the storyteller for the Tigerpaws in the Fishglobe shows. He is accompanied by two hand-puppets, mr Fox & mr. Bear and he can do a perfect imitation of Arafat.
That afternoon we start the first show with a carpet with some 25 children. During the show more and more children enter and at one point we sit with at least sixty kids. A couple of boys start to rise in mutiny walking in, out and about to annoy. We have to throw them out and close the door. After the storytelling we select a group of some twenty children for the next parts of the show. Short after a pleasant tranquillity returns to the space and the children draw with heaps of inspiration. The next morning we go to the beach again to exhibit their drawings in the sky together with an Art-kite with children-drawings made during my previous trips in Europe and Africa.

-That afternoon we initiate our first Cadavre Exquis get together with the artists Hazem Harb, Sami El Haw, Majed Shala, Mohammad Joha, Sameer Al Halak and Basel Magus, Storyteller Alaam also joins in as do other visitors. Soon after the first traditional Cadvre Exquis (A4) drawings are mounted in our exhibition space next to the ones made during previous trips and copies of the ones made by the Surrealists in the beginning of the twentieth century. The next days we work on one of the International Cadavre Exquis Art-Kites as well. During our sessions people are walking in and out to have a look. As does a faithful multitude of fans, participants of the Tigerpaws in the Fishglobe Shows as well as the mutineers who turn out to be nice guys who even help me mount the numerous drawings made by the artists during the get-togethers. In total 34 traditional Cadavre Exquis drawings come into being from which we select five for the Hope Box International Collection. We also discuss the big exhibition and event of next year.

On one of the last days in Palestine I wish to visit my friends in Khan Younis. Now is the perfect moment since the road is open and it is fairly easy to take a joined taxi to get there. Incomparable to last January when we had to wait for hours to get past the checkpoint. It is wonderful to see all the people I worked with in Khan Younis. Proudly they present their new projects in the Open Studios while putting the emphasis on the inspiration they got from the Tigerpaws in the Fishglobe Show. Next to the Tiger-rug I left behind they made a storyteller-tent and many drawings related to stories being told there decorate the Open Studios. Also a photo-display of the Tigerpaws in the Fishglobe show is presented. After the tour we do a little Cadavre Exquis session and have a cosy lunch together during which I discuss the opportunity to come to Khan Younis with the show again when exhibiting in Gaza City next year. After lunch we go to the new Cultural Centre in Khan Younis where we see the huge murals Moh'd Al Farra has made there. After that it is time to dash back to Gaza City where the last Cadavre Exquis get together is about to begin. At this get-together a very long painting arises. After this we break up the tent of kites and mount this dynamic painting. Voila! The exhibition is completed! This last night we go to the Arts & Craft Village where we have a great time sipping tea and water-pipes for hours.

Next day we pack and leave for Tel Aviv. Although this time it is fairly easy to cross the border at Erretz there is little time to acclimatise. After finalising my Weather Report drawings I dash off to Jasmine Ronel's house. Jasmine and I met at the Hope Box artists meeting in Tel Aviv last January. There and then I tried, for the first time ever without success, to initiate a Cadavre Exquis get together. Jasmine later wrote me that she felt bad about that and that she was very embarrassed. This time she initiates a Cadavre Exquis get together and the artists present are: Tal Amitai, Irit Rabinovits, Jasmine Ronel and Gadi Freeman. The artists paint the first kite in action, to say the least. In a moment of contemplation the artists say to be overwhelmed, Gadi even states to be shocked by the result. According to Jasmine the colours are very pregnant, 'a lot of red and yellow, blood and stains…', Tal says she cannot find words to express what she feels and Irit says a lot of feelings have come out. The second kite is being approached in tranquillity and next to the abstract image of the previous kite a harmonious human figure arises. A small revolution according to Jasmine.

The next morning I visit the studio of Gilad Efrat in a warehouse in the south of Tel Aviv. Gilad is one of the Weather Reporters from Tel Aviv. After a intensive conversation about the political situation in the Middle east we go to lunch in a close by canteen where we eat a schnitzel. After returning to his studio I get to see Gilads impressive oeuvre. Gilad about his work: "I deal with questions regarding the past, such as bombarded cities from the early 20th century and archaeological sites, in order to ask questions about the present and to touch the essence of our existence in face of the changing and unstable reality. Through these questions my art combines both the external, public aspect of being, and the self (the image of my own body) simultaneously. My vision intends to enable people to see their current state in a complex, labyrinth-like manner, only to be able to experience something only art can provide by joining together different times. "
After looking at many of his huge and wonderful paintings a conversation about Weather Report follows giving me quite a few new insides on how to look upon it from new angles provided by Gilad. On top of that Gilad gives me a catalogue Mobile-Seminar a project in which 28 Palestinians and Israelis (amongst whom Gilad) participated in a two-day Mobile seminar in the spring of 1997, visiting a series of Palestinian and Israeli cultural sites to make the first step towards an ongoing dialogue.
After visiting Gilad my head is overflowing with thoughts so I decide to walk through the heat to Noga Gallery where I have a meeting with Adina Alslech.

Noga is a leading gallery in Tel Aviv with a clear vision and good shows with likewise artists. There I saw the work of both Gilad and Marilou Levin (the second Weather Reporter from Tel Aviv) for the first time. Adina and I discuss how and when to bring the Hope Box exhibition and event to Tel Aviv as well. A blissful feeling overcomes us when we imagine the exhibition to be held in a new era of peace, being able to go up and down the border while all parties involved will be working together without problems. Of course at this stage the total opposite is also possible. Above all Adina says to be hopeful.
There are those who say that Sharon has too much to loose when peace will come. There is also an interesting theory about how Sharon might be the one to be able to bring all parties together to work on the peace-process and saving his own stained skin while doing just that.
Although on the whole I feel the atmosphere here to be one of hope I have also felt at some occasions the fear and heaviness in full force. People on both sides live between hope and fear.

That same night the Tel Aviv Cadavre Exquis team is present on the beach to fly the kite. All are there and everything is ready except for the wind. We try without wind but after some seconds the kite tumbles on the ground again. The next morning however only hours before the Hope Box returns to Amsterdam, all Cadavre Exquis Art-kites take off and are mounted for at least an hour in the borderless sky!

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Travel-report: Rienke Enghardt
Photos: Ronald de Hommel