Albi is a new fund, institute and lab that uses cultural vehicles to establish paradigm-shifting narratives by and about Palestinians and Jews.
For some people, it was a band that influenced their politics. For others, a book, film, or television show; even a video game or a TikTok. Culture surrounds us, constantly shaping our ideas in powerful and oftentimes subconscious physical and emotional ways.
It helps us understand who we are and what we aspire to, with whom we feel identification and belonging, what is cool and what is dangerous. It tells us what matters to our various interlocking groups and tribes.
“Politics is where some of the people are some of the time. Culture is where most of the people are most of the time.”
-The Culture Group, Making Waves: A Guide to Cultural Strategy
Cultural products can be catalysts for cognitive dissonance, new perspectives, and political imagination in Israel-Palestine, too. They can initiate personal and political change.
One way to understand Albi’s work is through a simple matrix. On one axis, three spaces where narratives have the greatest impact on our collective understanding: mass media, mass culture, and mass movements. On the other axis, three moments when interventions in the storytelling process are possible: development, production, and distribution. This matrix is our playing field, an enormous range of opportunities wherein we can transform “the air we’re breathing” – which, in turn, will transform us. Albi exists to leverage these opportunities to impact how people in Israel-Palestine think about what kind of country they want to live in, thrive in, and help build.
The name:
Albi means my heart in Arabic. It speaks to the power of culture and art to move people in both an emotional and an intellectual place.
Albi was also a counter-cultural cafe in South Tel Aviv for a decade, a meeting place of artists and activists.
The logo:
The elephant is a symbol of gentle strength. She also evokes the elephant in the room and the unique ways that culture and art can bring taboo topics into our individual and collective consciousness.
The logo was designed by Elad Lifshitz of Dov Abramson Studio
Pheel, the Arabic word for elephant, was the nickname of Bassam Abu Rahme, an activist and teacher killed in protest in the West Bank town of Bil'in.
