# Roni Ben Ari

Roni Ben Ari (Hebrew: רוני בן ארי; born Halpern; 1947) is an Israeli photographer, curator and multi-disciplinary artist.

## Early life and education

Roni Ben Ari was born 1947 in Ramat Gan to Miriam and Abraham Halpern, a textile industrialist (Halpern Textile Industries). She lives in Moshav Netaim, with her husband, Daniel Ben Ari. They have three daughters. Ben Ari is a graduate of the Beit Berl Academic College, the School of Journalism in Tel Aviv, and the College for Geographic Photography.

## Early career

She worked as a news director and reporter at the Israel Broadcasting Authority, Educational Television, and Channel Two. In recent years she has been working as an independent photographer. Her work has been exhibited in solo and in group exhibitions in Israel and around the world and it can be found in museums as well as in private collections. Among the subjects Ben Ari has investigated is the Israeli heroine. Mira Ben Ari—an exemplary figure who became the symbol of the Women's Corp of the Israel Defense Forces and for women in general—who was killed in the battle of Kibbutz Nitzanim during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The educational and heritage center at the Memorial to the Female Soldier, (located in old Nitzanim), was established in tribute to her spirit and legacy. Ben Ari is a founder and partner in the Bateva School educational program, a growing mainstreaming program that prepares children and youth with complicated learning disabilities for independent integration into society. She is also a shareholder in the Elyakim Ben Ari Company, a civil engineering company that executes national projects in Israel.

## Artistic career

Ben Ari uses her photography to document social issues such as aging, homelessness, prostitution, minorities, and ecology. She mainly photographs people, but also their surrounding environment. Before she photographs them, Ben Ari first becomes close to her subjects by living with them. For example, the photographs for her project, Journey in Search of "Țigancă", were taken only after she had been living among the Romani for about a year. She began the project after the death of her mother who was born in Cluj-Napoka, Romania, a city that has historically had a large gypsy minority. In the project Till Their Voices Stop, Ben Ari lived in a nursing home. There, she photographed the fragile, elderly residents and recorded their voices, which she developed into in a video installation that was exhibited in the gallery of the College for Geographic Photography.
   Photography is often associated with the term "to take" as in "to take a picture." Roni's photography does not take. In Roni's photography, the act of giving is so present that she hears the voices, is aware of the needs, touches the textures and thus brings the viewer closer. We all benefit from this closeness. This closeness is not perceived as an invasion of someone else's territory, but rather as the act of acceptance, of giving.

## Awards

* Black & White magazine, single Image Contest 2018
* Magnum Photography Awards 2017 – top 7% of all entries, impressive accomplishment Ben Ari receiving from the King of the Roma, Cioaba Dorin, an honorary title "ambassador in Israel for the Romani Community"2017– Hariban Award 2017, Kyoto, Japan
* The 5th Edition of the Jacob Riis for documentary Award, 2017
* UNESCO Prize for Art and Society, honorable mention, 2017
* Worldwide Photograph Gala Awards, first prize, Portrait Photography Category, 2013
* China Digital Photography Museum of Lishui, prize for Processed Photograph, 2011
* Julia Margaret Cameron Prize, Portrait Photography Category, 2011
* UNESCO Humanity Photo Award, 2008
* Ziv Prize for Television Journalism, 1988
* Ben Ari is the honorary ambassador in Israel for the Romani Community, a title she received personally from the King of the Roma, Dorin Cioabă, following an exhibition of her photographs depicting gypsy daily life

## Books

* Father -Loom- Requiem (2012) ISBN 978-965-92637-4-5
* From the inner margins (2013) ISBN 978-965-92637-5-2
* Ladies in waiting (2017) ISBN 978-965-92637-0-7
* Ethiopia here (2017) ISBN 978-965-92637-1-4
* Faces (2017) ISBN 978-965-92637-2-1
* Ocean of garbage (2017) ISBN 978-965-92637-3-8

## Exhibitions
### 1998

Lag Be-Omer Ceremony, Mount Meiron, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv

### 2001

City Project, Kibbutz Gallery, Tel Aviv

### 2002

Love Conquers, Kibbutz Gallery, Tel Aviv

### 2006

Solo exhibition, Until Their Voices Stopped, Gallery of the College for Geographic Photography, Tel Aviv

### 2008

Permanent solo exhibition, Ethiopia Here, The Story of the Ethiopian Community, photos embedded on 12 concrete pillars, Park of the Communities, Petah Tikva
Light, FusionArts Museum, New York, NY
Border between Two Cities, Museum of Jaffa

### 2009

Artists Create and book launch for Israeli Artists Book, Sand Horses Gallery, Paris
Culture of the Kiosk/Gift of Memory, 53rd Biennale (Marx 7), Scalamata Gallery, Venice, Italy
Memoir L'avenir, Head Museum, Paris, France
Inside Israel, traveling exhibition in China commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel, Museum of the Three Kings, Chunching, China
City of Refuge, Tel Aviv Biennale of Art, Hangar 2, Jaffa Port, Tel Aviv

### 2010

Photography about Painting, Galerie Mémoire de L’avenir, Paris, France
Two-person exhibition, Ma'agalot , Office in Tel Aviv (Alternative space for interdisciplinary art), Tel Aviv

### 201

Echo Phobia Art, Drap-Art Festival, Nakba Museum/CCCB Barcelona, Spain
Wabi Sabi, "Love Art Make Art", Studio and Gallery, Tel Aviv
Mapping, 54th Biennale, Gallery Living Art Gallery, Venice, Italy
Black, Fusion Arts Museum, New York, NY

### 2012

Solo exhibition, Loom-Father-Requiem, Galerie Vernon, Prague, Czech Republic
Dance Signs, Tina B. Fest, Prague, Czech Republic
Solo exhibition, Sea of Garbage, video work, screened on Mani House, Tel Aviv
I Was There, Water Tower Art Fest, Sofia, Bulgaria
Transformation, Hallway Gallery, Documenta 2012, Kassel, Germany

### 2013

Solo exhibition, Montzi, Gypsies in Cluj-Napoca, Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca, Romania
"At your place", Roof Gallery, Duisburg, Germany
Rainbow in a Sea of Garbage, Gask Museum of Contemporary Art, Kutná Hora, Czech Republic
My Eye/I, 92nd Street Y, New York, NY

### 2014

Solo exhibition, Home Is Where the Hurt Is, Galerie Mémoire de L’avenir, Paris, France
in between the lines, Art Gallery, Botanischer Garten, München-Nymphenburg, Germany
Woven Consciousness, Contemporary Textile in Israel, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv

### 2015

Adama, Second Biennale for Sculpture and Photography, Moshe Kastel Museum, Jerusalem
Solo exhibition, Journey in Search of "Țigancă, Museum of Israeli Art, Ramat Gan
Adama, Gallery of the Ahmedabad and Baroda University and National Gallery of Mumbai, India
I Live in the East and My Heart Is in the West, Fifty Years of Israel-German Relations, Pasinger Fabrik, Munich, Germany

### 2016

Solo exhibition, Drawing in Stone, Artists House, Munich, Germany
Solo exhibition, Central Museum of Textiles, The 15th International Triennial of Tapestry, Lodz, Poland
Solo exhibition, Micro Macro, Pardes Festival, Kazmierz Dolny, Poland
Tower of Babel, Schema Projects, Brooklyn, NY

### 2017

Signing event Foley Gallery, NY
Solo exhibition, Gallery Ryugaheon, Seoul, Korea
UNESCO –Art & Society, Solo exhibition at the World Humanities Conference. Bruges, Belgium
Bosom Bodies, SIA Gallery, NYC
16th DongGang International Photo Festival, Korea

### 2018

Solo exhibition, The International Photography Festival of Photo Is:Rael
PhotoBook Show, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
Memory of the Future gallery, "can I call you madam?", Paris, France
Cuckoo's Nest gallery, "Beyond the mind", Jaffa, Israel