Here to Cheer

Sport events have never, throughout history and to this day, been limited to the aspects of physical activity or entertainment. Rather, they constitute a social ritual shared by athletes and onlooking crowds, within a broader framework of values, habits and social symbols that together manufacture a sense of identity and belonging.

The designers taking part in this participatory exhibition react to various branches of sports by expanding, dismantling or devising new game systems: they alter rules, bend borders and parameters, define dynamics and balances of power, test various cooperative and competitive scenarios, and create an experience that blurs the distinction between player and crowd. The designed environments featured in “The Heat” implement an encounter between players using mediating objects that are anything but neutral: creating resistance; demanding control, strategy and application of force; and shaping group dynamics among participants.

Visitors observing the exhibition are invited to play and explore the redefined rules and regulations, either as active players or cheering from the sidelines, and enjoy actions that go beyond the physical contest and into the realm of mutual visual experience. Ultimately, the value of a match or competition lies not only in victory, but in the quality of athletes’ performance and execution, their creativity, improvisational ability and precision, as well as in the social, cultural experience embedded in the spectating crowds that encompasses excitement, tension, anticipation and at times disappointment.

While victory is momentary and fleeting, trophies, medals and decorations are designed to last. Symbols of victory, as manifested in matter and material, have appeared as far back as prehistoric ceremonial jewelry, in the grand mosaics and paintings of centuries past, and in monumental architectural feats that remain with us to this day. Throughout the ages, these artifacts have served not only as instruments for marking achievement and success, but also as symbols of power and status, as tools in the construction of aggressive hierarchy, and in the celebratory documentation of defining moments—occasionally in a broader context of ritual that encompasses garb, gestures and changes bearing consequential social significance.
The articles presented in “Hall of Fame” represent subjective narratives as expressed through the act of design, bringing to light the various aspects of triumph and accomplishment. They invoke a versatile perspective on the concept of glory as it truly is, with its complexity and ambiguousness, on a broad range of emotions and practices: triumph may be comical, mournful, absolute or contested, shared by a group or savored alone.

"In Good Sport" brings together design works that approach sport as a space for experimentation, play, and invention. Rather than serving or representing the world of sports, the works presented here use it as raw material for interpretation, re-examination, and the expansion of design possibilities. The rules of the game, familiar conventions, and established structures become points of departure for unexpected connections, reconfigurations, and material, conceptual, and structural experiments.

Like a playground, this space is animated by a continuous process of research, response, and movement. Some of the works emerge from prolonged and labor-intensive processes, while others adopt a humorous or critical perspective on moments and mechanisms associated with competitive sports. Still others use sport as a lens through which to explore broader questions of performance, rules, discipline, and identity.

Through a diverse range of materials, objects, and actions, these works test the boundaries of the familiar and propose a view of sport not only as an arena of competition and achievement, but also as a cultural sphere in which values, relationships, and patterns of behavior are shaped. In doing so, sport is transformed from a closed system of rules into an open field of interpretation, play, and invention.

“Control Room” is an emotionally distant system of tallying, measuring, and rating – converting action into data and experience into numerical value. Observation here becomes analytical and continuously supervised; every element is documented, catalogued, and retained, while simultaneously exposing the logic and critique of assessment culture itself.
Across a series of works, elements drawn from systems of monitoring and control emerge: monitors, timers, scoreboards, match summaries, and measurement interfaces. Each translates the game into quantitative form. As they accumulate, they form not a single structure, but a spatial system of observation and measurement that extends throughout the exhibition space.
Within this expanse, a match ceases to be an open-ended experience and becomes a sequence of data subject to comparison, rating, and reproduction. Today, lived experience is increasingly summarized, quantified, and reduced to numbers through smartwatches, polls, and statistical models.
“Control Room” examines this mechanism from within—a space where monitoring is not only technical but cultural, structuring how we observe, measure, and evaluate performance. Ostensibly under our control, the control room is presumed to serve us. Yet in a reality where everything is measured—even without our knowledge—the question arises: who controls whom, us or the control room?

The ancient Spartans viewed physical training as preparation for both games and battle, shaping the body for discipline and endurance. The stadium can at times reveal itself as an arena of discipline and struggle, where playing field and battlefield converge and the distinction between players and warriors begins to blur. Sports training and military training share a common language of hierarchy, control, fortitude, and obedience, through which the body is drilled, disciplined, and prepared for action.
The relationship between war and play tightens further: battles are often framed as competitive games, while games function as preparation for battle. Within this cultural mechanism, military discourse is inscribed in material and social practices visible on the field—from the discipline required of the profession, to ideals of total sacrifice, to the universe of sporting objects such as fencing gear, javelins, rifles, and even baseball bats, which outside the pitch are at times associated with acts of street violence.
Physical strain is also central to this overlap between combat and play: fouls, brawls, and bodily confrontation within the game; the conditioning and hardening of the body; structures of offense and defense; and training camps leading toward the decisive moment of victory or defeat. In this sense, games extend beyond competition alone, functioning as sites of training, drilling, and confrontation, where players and warriors come to share overlapping roles and values.

A football team without its fans is merely an official framework, consisting of a name, a symbol, and a roster of players. The stadium bleachers, housing the team’s fans, is the beating heart of every match, as well as an emotionally charged space of passion and belonging, overflowing with excitement, yet full of contradiction, and sometimes even prone to violence.
The stands can often be a colorful, creative space as well, where fans formulate their collective identity through external appearance, with the use of apparel and accessories. The aesthetic adopted by these groups is tested as a space where identity, gender, and status borders are drawn and marked.
This year, the “Matchmaker” project pairs Jerusalem-based designers and creators with football fans from the various Jerusalem clubs. Together, they compile a contemporary situation report of material culture in Jerusalem sports, using clothes, paraphernalia, graphic design and photography.
In this context, the stands function as an aesthetics laboratory, with works featured in the project sketching up a visual language that proposes a fresh look at fashion in football. Social codes of belonging, style hierarchy, and visual symbols are all broken down, translated, and reassembled, while fans serve as proactive agents of culture.
The exhibition is accompanied by a printed collection that brings together the projects, photography productions, and texts revolving around the encounter between fashion and football culture in Jerusalem. This collection offers a second arena, where the stands transcend their physical existence to act as an active interpretive field.

The Maccabiah, founded in 1932, is not only the world’s third-largest sporting event, but also a highly influential diplomatic mechanism. Since its inception, it has served as a tool for encouraging Aliyah (immigration to Israel), shaping the image of the “New Jew,” strengthening ties with Jewish communities around the world, and reinforcing Israel’s position on the global stage.
This exhibition presents an interpretive reimagining of the first twelve Maccabiah posters, redesigned by students from the Department of Visual Communication at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. Through historical and visual research, the works deconstruct and reconstruct the myths, images, and narratives that have shaped the Maccabiah over the years, examining the power of graphic imagery to shape perception, identity, and collective memory.
This project was developed in collaboration with the Sports Diplomacy Research Center at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Jewish Sports Museum, and the Maccabiah.

This year’s academy project, titles "Olympia", explores the encounter between sports, mythology, design, and consumerism. The project examines how athletes attain legendary status, how their achievements are shaped into narratives of fame and recognition, and how design constructs a halo of memory and symbolic, emotional, and economic value through material culture.

The participating academies have developed stands and installations dedicated to mythological figures and the value systems of the sporting world, creating transient spaces that range from merchandise stalls to museums and shrines. These works offer a comprehensive experience of consumption, collection, and devotion.

Alongside the main exhibitions, this year’s edition will feature a range of unique projects and collaborations with designers, organizations, and brands. As part of these initiatives, capsule collections, products, works, and installations created especially for Jerusalem Design Week will be presented, extending the design discourse beyond the exhibition spaces and into new contexts.