Between Seas and Deserts

Abstract

Brought by his French mother, who was born and raised in French Algeria, Joseph Dadoune was dragged from place to place by her loves and whims, following a detour in Southern France and ending up in Ofakim, Israel. This is where Yosef-Joseph Dadoune was thrown at the age of 6. Ofakim would become the last stage of her tortured life and of her violent and chaotic spiritual quest. The only possible escape route for Dadoune is artistic creation. It is thanks to that expression that he can try to face the demons that haunt him, the anger and the frustration that animate him.

Ofakim, like Netivot and Sderot, was created from scratch to guarantee a continuity of settlement along the border with Gaza. It was created out of purely strategic and geopolitical interest; they were all sacrificed to the Zionist ideology. Stuck between two military bases and a giant waste dump, Ofakim survived until the 1980s with a textile industry that has since disappeared. Unemployment and the geographical, economic and political distance of this ‘urban’ ghost are such that the city is now under trusteeship, managed by a public administrator. A small industrial zone still survives, generating income not for Ofakim but to the surrounding kibbutz community, owners of the land.