“The Tomato is free of any politics”
Avigail Roubini -“In my last year of Visual Communications studies at Bezalel Academy of Arts, I chose my final project to be a video clip that guides you on how to make urban agriculture in your own porch or backyard. That’s what opened my mind to the world of sustainability in the modern-urban life.
“So when I finished my degree, I felt that I can’t just move on to start my professional career as a graphic designer. I was eager to create a framework that would deal with urban agriculture and sustainability. Together with a couple of friends we initiated ‘Onya collective’’ – an urban environment nursery dedicated to developing and integrating smart elements of nature in the city through community based agri-puncture. Or in simple words: Pimp your hood with that vegilicious planting!
“We are a multidisciplinary group of people: architects, graphic designers, educators, agriculturists – all aimed towards the same ambition: creating a long lasting urban sustainable life.
“Our leading project is ‘Next Station’, at Tel-Aviv’s central bus station. Through an open call process, over 30 installations, artworks and interventions have been put up in public areas within the central bus station boosting ecological and cultural actions.
“What drives me most is the basic feeling that when you touch the ground and plant something, it makes people feel good- no matter who, no matter where. I saw that in the central bus station – people that are usually framed as ‘enemies’, found their common ground in our project. Urban agriculture makes people cooperate. It actually creates a community: Kohlrabi and strawberries connect people together.
