Multiple walls, many stories

With his partner Berel Hahn, Souza is working to transform the shuk gallery into a nonprofit.

By RUCHIE ZEMA
Solomon Souza’s portraits stare out at the Mahaneh Yehuda bustle (photo credit: RAFI KOEGEL)
Solomon Souza’s portraits stare out at the Mahaneh Yehuda bustle
(photo credit: RAFI KOEGEL)
Early Saturday evening: A young man unassumingly approaches an old shutter door in Jerusalem's Mahaneh Yehuda market, sealed tightly with rust-covered locks and plastered with faded paper ads. He begins the arduous task of scraping off the layers of old posters to reveal the naked state of the shutter: a mix of grays, whites and blues of another era.
Time that has seen numerous stores come and go since vendors first started hawking their goods in the shuk in the late 1800s. Time that has observed countless shoppers pass through the open-air market’s crevices, that has witnessed wars, internal divisions and changing borders.
The man, artist Solomon Souza, stares at the wall and cocks one hip to the side, pensive, deciding what to do next. He shakes a can and then begins to spray with deliberate movements of his right hand. His whole body engages in action, reaching up, down and side-to-side. His eyes refer back to his sketch as the unmistakable smell of aerosol begins to fill the space. He bends down, taking a moment to connect with the rich surface floor of the shuk.
Spectators start to gather, their smiles growing larger as their gazes follow Souza’s purposeful movements. The artist takes several movements to stop, step backward and examine his work.
Each pause for observation is followed by a stride forward and a brilliant addition to the image taking form on the shutter. It is as if he can see a hidden reality in the lines of color, the old, decrepit shutter and the people looking on in awe.
He paints eyes that gaze back at their viewer, capturing the soul of the individual and drawing it deep in the “window of the wall.” He paints a nose that breathes, inhaling the marketplace air redolent with aromas of foods, spices and people, exhaling a breath of its own from within. Lastly, he paints lips that speak stories through silence.
Each one of the portraits, capturing likenesses as varied as that of Henrietta Szold, the Baba Sali and Jonathan Pollard, contributes to the revitalization and beautification of the marketplace.
The more-than-two-hour process is precise, detailed and filled with passion and dedication to a culture, cause and city – resulting in a gallery, nearly completed.
With his partner Berel Hahn, Souza is working to transform the shuk gallery into a nonprofit; to that end, the pair is launching a Kickstarter campaign in April to finish their current project and raise seed funding for their NGO.
Souza disappears into the boisterous background of bars, live music and flocks of people. The portrait stares out at Mahaneh Yehuda and comfortably assumes its place, as if it had always been there.