SEEDS OF BLISS / بذر / גרעינים

Noam Edry’s project Seeds of Bliss, gives a Middle Eastern spin to Ai Wei Wei’s famous Sunflower Seeds exhibition at the Tate Modern in 2010. Edry will connect people from neighboring cities in a 5 day sunflower seed cracking adventure – the aim is to work through 10 tonnes of sunflower seeds and create a huge mountain of shells.

The project will begin on August 23, 2012 in Edry’s birthplace, Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan, with the participation of kibbutz members and their neighbors from the villages Ras Ali and Hawald. Edry is currently putting together teams in neighboring cities: Aqaba-Eilat, Nabulus-Haifa, and Jenin-Afula. She is seeking star sunflower seed crackers who can go through a large quantity of seeds to reach the 10 tonne goal. Participants will travel to their neighboring cities, where they will sit together in a local café and crack sunflower seeds. The process of finding the people, obtaining permits, transporting the seeds and everything else entailed in this fantasy project will be documented and broadcast in real time.

In September 10 Israelis are scheduled to travel to Aqaba for the project, and 10 Jordanians will travel to Eilat; in October the project will move on to Nablus and Haifa, sponsored by the Haifa Museum of Art. Edry’s plan is to include additional cities in the project, aiming to reach her goal of 10 tonnes of sunflower seed shells that will be a testimony to time spent together in a friendly, non-political way by people living in an area rife with politics and conflict. Once complete, the mound of shells will be exhibited in London.