Ron Amir: Somewhere in the Desert

Somewhere in the Desert features 30 large-format colour photographs and 6 videos by the Israeli artist Ron Amir. The pictures, shot in the period from 2014-2016, document the living conditions of Sudanese and Eritrean refugees in the Holot detention centre in the Negev Desert, now shut down. Running away from terrorism and oppression, the migrants were forced to stay in the camp, since they could not live or work legally in Israel. Through his photographs, Amir investigates their every day life and how, by using simple or abandoned pieces, they managed to create community services, like sports field and tearooms or every sort of facility. The images never portray the refugees, but they rather represent landscapes in which clear traces of their passage, creativity and survival initiatives are shown.