The Israeli Center for Digital Art is a dynamic platform for thinking, researching, producing, presenting, and analyzing contemporary art, as well as providing a meeting point for exchange between contemporary artists, curators, critics and the public. The center has grown quite rapidly since it was established in 2001 in an abandoned school building in the industrial area of Holon.
The center is a non-profit organization supported by the city of Holon. As a public art space it consistently questions the place of art institutions within their society. This brings to the front political and social issues we believe art should not be ignoring. By expressing views that do not correlate in many cases with policies of the state, the definition of an art institute and a publicly financed art space are examined and put into test. In an effort to stimulate discourse in Israeli society, the center devotes a significant part of its work on art projects that foster questions about identity, ethnicity, nationalism and cultural exchange.
This activity is led by the overarching question of how an art institute can reflect and react to volatile conditions of culture and politics and produce a critical approach to the oppressive power of the government. The center initiates partnerships and collaborations with contemporary artists, theorists, writers, curators, and other institutions in the Middle East and the Balkan region, to explore how creative communities from different peripheries of the world can connect, learn from one another, and break down nationalistic or regional barriers.
The activities of the center are concentrated in five main areas: the video archive, public presentations, the residency program, publications, and education.