Dor Guez Explores Christian Arab Identity at Petach Tikva Museum

The Petach Tikva Museum of Art, under director and chief curator Drorit Gur Arie, has become Israel's most important museum since its reopening five years ago, known for broad ideological perspectives and innovative conservation. The museum currently hosts Georgiopolis, a solo exhibition by young Israeli artist Dor Guez (b. 1980). Georgiopolis is the ancient name of Lod, a poor and marginalized city despite its central location, with a diverse population of Arabs, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Ethiopians, Russians, and centuries-old Arab families. Guez explores the city through the unique perspective of Christian Arabs in Israel, a dwindling community. His analysis blends intimate and personal axes with a heavy political context. The exhibition includes photographic, video, and sound works that portray three generations of the Monayer family from Lod. Guez uses their discomfort with probing questions as documentary material, asking where they were in 1948, how they define themselves, and how they reacted to events that exposed their Arab identity within a Jewish milieu. The candid responses give human identity to the concept of identity politics, revealing its flaws when confronted with reality. The exhibition opens with a photograph of Jacob and Samira's Christian wedding at St. George's Church, where the qanun and oud contrast with the priest's Greek. Georgiopolis is a pioneering exhibition that breaks ethnocentric barriers and calls for tolerance, inclusion, and peace.