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web-site: www.ronasela.com
Academia: https://telaviv.academia.edu/RonaSela
Dr. Rona Sela
History of Art Department
חוג לתולדות האמנות
עמית הוראה
Dr. Rona Sela
Dr. Rona Sela, History of Art Department, David and Yolanda Katz Faculty of the Arts
Dr. Rona Sela is a curator and researcher of visual history and a lecturer at History of Art Department, David and Yolanda Katz Faculty of the Arts, Tel Aviv University, formerly the Curator of Photography at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Research Interests
Dr. Sela's research focuses on the visual historiography of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian photography, colonial Zionist/Israeli photography, colonial Zionist/Israeli archives, visual aspects of human rights violation, plunder and looting of Palestinian archives and their subjugation to repressive colonial mechanisms, and on constructing alternative postcolonial archives. She also researches the development of alternative visual practices connected to civil society systems, asking to replace the old Israeli official gatekeepers. She recently directed a film entitled Looted and Hidden: Palestinian Archives in Israel (2017).
Publications, Academic Reports and Workshops, Selected Conferences, Films and Curatorial Work
Peer-reviewed books and articles in Periodical and books
Genealogy of an image in public consciousness. From David Rubinger’s photograph of paratroopers beside the western wall to Alex Levak’s photograph of the affair of bus line 300", Israel, The Chaim Weizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism and Israel, Tammy Razi &Naama Shefie (eds.), Summer 2008 (Hebrew). Also published in: Die Neuen Hebräer, Doreet LeVitte Hartman (ed), Germany: Nicolai, 2005 (in German).
Pictorial History of Palestine”, Theory and Criticism, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Yehuda Shenhav (ed.), 2007 (Hebrew)
"Women photographers in the private arena, Women Photographers in the Public Arena", Women Artists in Israel, 1920-1970, Markus Ruth (ed.), Hakibutz Hameuchad Publishing House and Tel Aviv University Publishing House, Summer 2008 (Hebrew)
"The Absent-Present Palestinian Villages", History of Photography, Taylor and Francis, February 2009
"Rethinking National Archives in Colonial Countries and Zones of Conflict – The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Israel’s National Photography Archives as Case Study", Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East, Anthony Downey(ed.), IB Tauris, 2015
Seized in Beirut - The Plundered Archives of the Palestinian Cinema Institution", Anthropology of The Middle East 12 (2), 2017
"The Genealogy of Colonial Plunder and Erasure – Israel's Control over Palestinian Archives", Social Semiotics 28:2, 2018 (Published online: 3 March 2017)
"Imprisoned Photographs”: The Looted Archive of Photo Rissas (Rassas)—Ibrahim and Chalil (Khalil) Rissas, Intermédialités 32 (Concealing), 2019
Academic Reports
"Palestinian Materials, Images and Archives held by Israel", Swiss peace, April 2018
Additional Articles (a Selection)
"The Research and Preservation Center for Local Photography in Israel”, Studio Art Magazine 113, 2000 (Hebrew)
"One Hundred Years of Solitude," Studio Art Magazine 124, 2001 (Hebrew)
"Scouting Palestinian Territory 1940-1948: Haganah Village Files, Aerial Photos and Surveys", Jerusalem Quarterly 52, Salim Tamari and Issam Nassar (eds.), Winter 2013 (English)
"The Hump of colonialism, or The Archive as a Site of Resistance", L'internationale - Decolonizing Practices, 2016: http://www.internationaleonline.org/research/decolonising_practices/60_the_hump_of_colonialism_or_the_archive_as_a_site_of_resistance
""On the Ruins of the Colonial Archive", Bezalel Journal 4, 2017 (Hebrew)
"Helmar Lerski,l a photographie sioniste et la série Soldats Juifs", The Jewish Museum, Paris, 2018
"Ali Za‘arur: Early Palestinian Photojournalism, the Archive of Occupation and the Return of Palestinian Material to Their Owners, Jerusalem Quarterly 73, 2018
Catalogues/Books (Accompanied to exhibitions)
Photography in Palestine in 1930s&1940s, Hakibutz Hameuchad Publishing House and Herzliya Museum, 2000 (Hebrew)
Six Day plus Forty Years, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, 2007 (Hebrew)
Made Public - Palestinian Photographs in Military Archives in Israel, Minshar Gallery, 2009 (Hebrew); لمُعاينة الجُمهور - الفلسطينيّون في الأرشيفات العسكريّة الإسرائيليّة, Madar Center, Ramallah, 2018 (Arabic)
Effervescence (Unrest) - Housing, Language, History - A New Generation in Jewish-Arab Cities, Gutman Museum of Art, 2013 (essays book in Hebrew and Arabic, author and editor)
Academic Workshops
"Myth, Memory and Historiography," Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem (2009-2010)
"Practice, Property, Politics in the Archives of Israel and Palestine," NYU, Taub Center (March 2017, organized with Dr. Seth Seth Anziska and Dr. Mezna Qato)
Selected Academic Conferences
"The First Century of Photography- Photography as History/Historicizing Photography in (Post-) Ottoman Territories (1839–1939)", Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, Istanbul (June 2018)
"Pictures of War: The Still Image in Conflict since 1945", Manchester Metropolitan University (2018)
"Looted, Lost or Hidden. Archives and Politics", Oslo, National Archives in cooperation with Preus Museum, Norway (February 2018)
Commission on the Middle East, The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Krakow(August 2017)
"Empire and Colonial Art", New University of Lisbon (April 2017)
"Collecting and Provenance Usage, Authenticity and Ownership", Israel museum, Jerusalem (November 2016)
"Seized, Censored and Buried. Palestinian Archives in Israel", Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institut (October 2016)
"Looting of Palestinian Archives, Censorship and Israel's Control Over the Writing of the Palestinian Past", Photomedia, Helsinki (March 2016)
"Roundtable: Declassifying Israel: Archives, Declassification, and the Academia", Association for Israel Studies Conference Program, Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism (June 2014)
" LIfta - Last Call," Bezalel, Academy for Art and Design, Jerusalem (July 2013)
"Photography and Human-Rights", Minshar for Arts, Tel-Aviv (March 2012, organizer)
"Re-writing an Alternative History, The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict", Oral History, Umm El-Fahem Art Gallery (February 2012)
Penser l’archive photographique au XXIe siècle, Jeu de Paume, Paris (January 2011)
"From an Official Visual History to an Alternate Visual History or: The Missing Map in Israeli Study Books- The case of the 1948 War," Manoifim, Jerusalem (September 2010)
"The Centre and the Margins – Enlisted Zionist Photography in the First Half of the Twentieth Century," Hebrew Language and Culture Before the Founding of the State, The Academy of the Hebrew Language (December 2008)
"Crossed Histories - The Role of a Municipal Museum in a Mixed City, The Case of the Haifa City Museum," Sanhedrin conference, Centre for Digital Art, Holon (June 2008)
“To Conquer the Mountain - Jewish National Fund Photographers during the British Mandate,” Policy of the Jewish National Fund in the Land of Israel, Haifa University (November 2007)
"The Genealogy of the Image: A Voyage in the Footsteps of David Rubinger’s Paratroopers," Six Days, Forty Years/The Six Day War - Culture and Communication, Sapir Academic College (May 2007)
"A Gaze over the Other: Arabs Represented in Israeli Photography," Historiography and Iconography in Israeli Photography, Haifa University (April 2007)
"Made Public – Palestinian Photographs in Military Archives in Israel", Librarians and Archivists to Palestine, Zochrot (June 2013)
"Photography and Human-Rights", Minshar for Arts, Tel-Aviv (March 2012, organizer)
"Re-writing an Alternative History, The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict", Oral History, Umm El-Fahem Art Gallery (February 2012)
" Penser l’archive photographique au XXIe siècle", Jeu de Paume, Paris (January 2011)
"From an Official Visual History to an Alternate Visual History or: The Missing Map in Israeli Study Books- The case of the 1948 War," Manoifim, Jerusalem (September 2010)
"The Centre and the Margins – Enlisted Zionist Photography in the First Half of the Twentieth Century," Hebrew Language and Culture Before the Founding of the State, The Academy of the Hebrew Language (December 2008)
"Crossed Histories - The Role of a Municipal Museum in a Mixed City, The Case of the Haifa City Museum," Sanhedrin conference, Centre for Digital Art, Holon (June 2008)
“To Conquer the Mountain - Jewish National Fund Photographers during the British Mandate,” Policy of the Jewish National Fund in the Land of Israel, Haifa University (November 2007)
"The Genealogy of the Image: A Voyage in the Footsteps of David Rubinger’s Paratroopers," Six Days, Forty Years/The Six Day War - Culture and Communication, Sapir Academic College (May 2007)
"A Gaze over the Other: Arabs Represented in Israeli Photography," Historiography and Iconography in Israeli Photography, Haifa University (April 2007)
"A Camera Crusade through the Holy Land, Adi Nes’s Bible Stories," Mutar 15 Conference, Tel Aviv University (March 2006)
Additional Projects
a. Films
Looted and Hidden- Palestinian Archives in Israel – Documentary Film (Director, 2017):
After Looted & Hidden: The Urgent Call of Palestine - An Interview with Zeinab Shaath – Short Documentary (Director, 2018)
b. Member in various international and local platforms discussing the possibility to return looted Palestinian archives to their owners
c. Projects (as free-lance)
The First Palestinian Film Festival, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2013)
Establishing Local Photography Library, Jerusalem (2006-2007 )
d. Curatorial work
Selected Exhibitions and accompanied catalogues
Cindy Sherman, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1993 (leaflet, Hebrew & English)
Robert Mapplethorpe, Retrospective, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1994 (curator: Germano Celant, Curator in Israel: Rona Sela, Hebrew leaflet)
Lorna Simpson, For the Sake of the Viewer, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1994
(curator: Beryl Wright, curator in Israel: Rona Sela, Hebrew catalogue)
90-70-90, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1994 (catalogue, Hebrew & English)
Gilad Ophir, Cyclopean Walls, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1995 (catalogue, Hebrew & English)
Surroundings (Helen Chadwick, Hannah Collins, Willie Doherty, Steven Pippin, Catherine Yass), Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1997 (catalogue, Hebrew & English)
Andres Serrano, The Morgue, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1997 (catalogue, Hebrew & English)
Roi Kuper-Citrus, Necropolois, Herzliya Museum, 2001 (book, Hebrew & English)
Six Day plus Forty Years, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, 2007 (book, Hebrew)
Crossed Histories - Manar Zuabi, Efrat Natan, Yael Bartana, Imagined Reality, Haifa City Museum, 2007 (catalogue- Hebrew, English & Arabic)
Chalil Raad, Photographs 1891-1948, Gutman Art Museum, 2010 (book, Hebrew)
Raida Adon, Woman Without a Home, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2014 (catalogue- English, Arabic & Hebrew)
Avital Cnaani, After the Wind, Ein Harod Museum of Art, 2016 (catalogue- English & Hebrew)
