The exhibit was conceived and organized by The Parents Circle – Families Forum, an organization of Israeli and Palestinian bereaved families working for reconciliation and peace.

135 Israeli and Palestinian artists received clay bowls under the theme of "Offering Reconciliation." From this point forth they each embarked on a personal path, to each their own interpretation and narrative of reconciliation and all the values that stem from it - coexistence, pain, loss, rift and fusion. Each artist presents his own unique reconciliation piece as a means of hope.

The techniques used by the different artists to create the "reconciliation bowls" vary. Some required an original combination of material, putting a personal and specific stamp on their work as a means of expressing a message of reconciliation in the face of two different nations and two different cultures. Other artists added local components such as earth, rocks and plants to their work as a means of emphasizing the tight connection of their creation to the place, culture and nationality. Many of the artists chose to give the material from which the bowls were made of a place of honor, and left it exposed as an integral part of their work. Other artists chose traditional media such as oil, acrylic and coal.

The diverse works of art present mental, emotional and cultural differences expressed through the use of color, language of shape, and symbolic rhetoric. However, the varied themes presented by the artists emphasize the common ground they all share. The difference is in fact the bridge between the two entities. The difference becomes the uniting cure; the reconciliation.

Samples of the works can be viewed at www.theparentscircle.org.
Catalogue available.