Published by Public School Editions based in Telaviv, Public School is a non-profit publisher whose aim is to preserve past and current art and cultural movements in Israel. Concrete Desert: Brutalist Structures in Israel’s Periphery examines Israeli architecture from the country’s establishment in 1948. The highly contrasted, slightly pixilated photographs are meant to evoke the Hebrew word Tsabar, a type of cactus and another word for the Israeli-born jew: thorny, rough and masculine. The architects chose to reflect the term’s brutal connotations through grand cement structures inspired by the Bauhaus movement. These Tsabar structures were built on Israel’s periphery and used as ‘authentic Israeli’ institutions for new immigrants making their homes in that part of the country.
