Ido Abramsohn, Israel: Diorama

Models of Israeli soldiers, Palestinian insurgents and civilians were photographed and enlarged to full human scale. The enlargement of the models does not distort the original meaning of the image, but enables the scrutiny of the stereotypical perception of the image of the "good" and "bad" soldier; as well as the examination of local stereotypes of the Israeli and the Palestinian.
The scaled models (1:35) are made of plastic castings, used for diorama modeling and made mostly by western manufacturers. The Israeli soldiers are, therefore, portrayed as a legitimate force. The Palestinian soldiers, contrarily, are mostly portrayed as outlaws. The new urban warfare, in addition, represents the Arab population, including women and children - who massively participate in the
private, personal, and general warfare.
The single soldier/citizen represents the general population which is engaged in a perpetual battle over its existence. These individual paradigms are translated into a "game" that is extrapolated from reality. The frozen movements augment the life/death moment and create heavily charged imagery, which is exemplary and symbolic to this type of warfare.