Itamar Paloge - Street Artist

Location: Tabula Rasa, Israel

Portrait of a Street Artist and Curator of Tabula Rasa

“I want to go someplace where some color is needed where it is monochrome and depressing.” --Itamar Paloge

I first met Itamar Paloge, a street artist in his late twenties and the curator of the Tabula Rasa street art project next to the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem, on a YouTube. Until he walked through the doors of the Casbah restaurant, Florentin #3 in Tel Aviv, I had expected a middle aged person (YouTubes are deceiving), partly because of the size, complexity, and depth of the project and partly because of his prompt and professional response to my email requesting a meeting and interview: “It’s an honor, and I’m very glad to hear that you like Tabula Rasa so much. I will be glad to meet with you.” (He suggested the restaurant choosing somewhere “cool” for me and a place close enough to take a walking tour of the street art in South Tel Aviv. ) " I like it here," said Itamar," because It’s so free.” Wearing an pink and blacked striped hoodie, wool cap and bright yellow chain hanging from jeans pocket, Itamar joined me and my Canadian companion Shirley.

Over padthai, hamburger, antipasti and Goldstar, I interviewed Itamar for 20 minutes asking him about his art, work as a curator, and thoughts on street art as a medium of expression. He grew up in Ein Kerem, an irenic village west of Jerusalem. After receiving formal training as a painter and jewelry maker at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Itamar decided he wasn’t a studio person who could sit in a room painting for hours. He needed “adrenaline and action,” so three years ago he began doing live art performances in events, at festivals, and during parties. He believes street art reaches a lot of people whether rich or poor who wouldn’t necessarily go to a gallery. Currently, he is self-supporting through his art, but before this “being good with his hands,” he worked at jobs such as installing sound systems, designing restaurants and carpentry.

Itamar loves to "color up" neglected and underserved neighborhoods. It was his idea to cover the metal siding which surrounds construction sites in Jerusalem with street art. Based on the work he had completed for the municipality of Jerusalem in projects such as the one in Shashluk Street, he was appointed as curator of Tabula Rasa for which he collected approximately 30 artists, photographers and sculptors both students from schools like Bezalel and street artists such as Einat Shtekler, Itamar Mendesflor, Tamar Pikes, and Know Hope.

Itamar believes all street artists have a desire for freedom of expression. “The walls are mine; this is where I live and I want to be part of it.” Beyond that he thinks “Some street artists are political, some social, and some are in it just for themselves,” and that street art “appeals to all ages although he recognizes that right now street art is cool and in fashion, but if it is “smart enough and good enough,” it will appeal to anyone. He believes street art is ubiquitous in Tel Aviv because the city is the cultural and entertainment capital of Israel .Most people have welcomed Tabula Rasa and the work he does, but sometimes people think he is “polluting or defacing” their worlds. He hopes Tabula Rasa will be extended because it has “good resonance.”

Itamar admires Know Hope who is “so poetic” and also a close friend and thinks that the Broken Fingaz, a group from Haifa, "are technically outstanding." (See my portrait of Broken Fingaz.) He also likes the rest of the big 4: Foma, one of the only female street artists; Zero Cents; and Klone (plus Know Hope) . He admires Dioz, "a close friend and big talent,” and he has just become familiar with the street artist, Natalie Mandel and her street installations. He likes text and art together and acknowledges that that’s how graffiti and street art got their beginnings: “First there was the word.” When asked about the difference between street art and graffiti, he said street art is everything not just sprayed art. It is really a technical separation. He likes the idea of “coloring up the world” which includes the separation wall although he acknowledges “he is not from that side of the wall” and recognizes that many Palestinians think the wall is ugly and don’t want it made beautiful because of the reality it represents.

In the future Itamar would like to do a project with kids. While traveling in Cambodia, he paused at the Land Mine Museum which presents the “horrors landmines had inflicted on Cambodia” and volunteered, teaching painting to children.

Below you will find a series (5) of videos from an interview with Itamar. Following these, there is another series of videos (8) of me following Itamar through the streets of South Florentine, Tel Aviv where street art covers the alleys.

Interview with Itamar1