Open Call #3: What is the White City?

Final submission date: 17 May 2025, Announcement: July 2025

We invite architects, artists, planners, urbanists, geographers, designers, researchers, and activists to submit proposals for an exhibition or project to be displayed in the Liebling Haus Project Room.

The Project Room is a space where creatives from various fields are invited to critically reflect on the question,

"What is the White City?" This exploration is part of an alternative, collaborative, and ongoing research of the White City as a platform for discourse on conservation, urbanism, identity, and culture in Tel Aviv.

The Project Room is the open end of the Liebling Haus permanent exhibition, which tells the story of the White City as
the starting point for a story in the making, one of many. For us, this is an opportunity to direct this question toward the creative community, inviting it to participate and rise complex issues concerning the “White City”— as an idea, concept, brand, and part of Tel Aviv’s built environment — providing a chance to reconsider existing narratives, propose alternative ones and imagine possible futures within the context of the urban space.

With ongoing war and civil protests, a renewed engagement with heritage, identity, urban resilience, and vision has emerged. We aim to explore ways to enhance the sense of place, community, and civic identity, the urban fabric, and the historical values we wish to preserve amid the city’s rapid development and change. What is the significance of the city's past for its present and future, and what do concepts like "heritage" and "preservation" mean in a city that exists in a continuous present? ”[1] What are the urgent challenges we face today? What is the role of modern heritage in shaping contemporary urban thought?

We wish to explore questions regarding built heritage, particularly how the notion of conservation and urban memory can extend beyond the renovation and rehabilitation of buildings, as part of diverse mediating activities that relate to the White City as a living cultural and historical tapestry, one that tells the stories of all the communities sharing this space, past and present.

[1] Zali Gurevitch, On Israeli and Jewish Place, 71

What we are looking for:

Proposals for exhibitions or projects that incorporate ongoing actions or alternative research; address the topic of the White City in various media; projects that extend beyond Liebling Haus into the city, generate dialogue on conservation and renewal; proposals that focus on urban memory, evoke social activity and civic engagement in the city.

Applications should include a proposal for three public engagements/workshops/activities that will take place during

the exhibition period.

What we are offering:

1. An exhibition that will be displayed for approximately three and a half months.

2. A grant of 20,000 NIS, including VAT (including the artist's fee and exhibition production).

3. Curatorial mentoring during the exhibition development process with Liebling Haus senior curator, Arch. Sabrina Cegla.

4. Opportunity to meet and engage with the Liebling House content team, including preservation architects,
urban planners, educators, and designers.

5. Promotion of the project across Liebling Haus's various platforms.

6. Documentation of the exhibition as part of an ongoing research collection: "What is the White City?".

How to apply?

Submit a single PDF file (maximum 10 MB).

The file name must indicate the applicant's full name (in English).

The file should include:

1. Contact details of the applicant (name, email, phone, address)

2. CV.

3. Short bio (half a page).

4. Portfolio (10 works max; submit video works via links).

5. Text describing the proposal for the exhibition (1 page max).

6. Illustrations demonstrating the proposal and an initial sketch or floor plan of the exhibition layout.

7. Budget for the project realization.

Final submission date: 17 May 2025, Announcement: July 2025.

The winning proposals will be exhibited during 2026/27, with the final date to be determined
in coordination with Liebling Haus.

The judges consist of representatives from the following organizations: Liebling Haus, the Engineering
Administration of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, and cultural officials.

Email for queries: projectroom@whitecitycenter.org

Project Room Initiator and Curator: Arch. Sabrina Cegla

Additional materials and links:

Floor plans

Photos and video of the space

Previous exhibitions documentation

#01: The Matter of Data | Centre for Documentary Architecture (CDA), Prof. Dr. Ines Weizman

#02: A Great Place to Live? | Paul Kearns and Motti Ruimy

#03: La Flâneuse | Nelly Agassi, Maya Raviv

#04: The Precious Stones | Danielle Alhassid

#05: Architecture is Frozen Music | Laure Catugier

#06: The Urban Manifesto | Studio MA