Occupied, 2010

South Tel Aviv, rented room by the hour.
 

This project examines the dynamics and power relations between myself, as an artist, and street-based sex workers.

Filmed over the course of a year in the Central Station area of Tel Aviv, the project began as a documentary and gradually shifted into a personal and intimate journey. Throughout this time, I documented encounters with women working in the streets, navigating the fragile boundaries between observation and involvement.

At the end of the filming process, I offered payment to one of the women in exchange for a hug in front of the camera, a moment that brings questions of agency, intimacy, and exploitation into sharp focus.

The final video is a single, unedited shot presented in real time. The camera lingers as two bodies fold into one another in a long, wordless embrace that reveals the tension between control and surrender, human connection and the transactional nature of the encounter.