ABOUT THE PROJECT

Thirty-three people we met in Holon's Jessy Cohen Neighborhood during January 2011 agreed to be filmed while preparing a dish of their own choosing.

The kitchen was their stage and we shot them for as long as they cooked. The thirty-three movies on this website are the outcome of these one-time encounters, offering a tour among kitchens, dishes and tales.

Jessy Cooks is produced as part of Jessy Project. The Jessy Cohen Project is an initiative of the Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon, that seeks to explore how art can take part in the processes of change on a city or neighborhood scale, by working side by side with other municipal, governmental, and private institutions and the tools available to them.

The Jessy Cohen Project seeks to establish a model for artistic activity in the community, in an attempt to redefine art's position in society. The project will focus on the residents of the Jessy Cohen Neighborhood in Holon, Israel, through various art projects, by providing tools for self-expression and community empowerment, by celebrating the neighborhood's cultural diversity and by encouraging members of the community to take part in planning and carrying out the various project activities. The objective is not necessarily to encourage people to move into the neighborhood, but to empower its current residents and turn their living environment into a source of socio-cultural support.

In these days a new project which is an outcome of 'Jessy Cooks' is underway. The aim is to create a group of women-cooks for the purpose of creating an independent catering business.