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Subsequent to founding Ensemble 209, the need arose to move to a location that would allow the group to grow and expand, and throughout 2001 the Foundation left behind the small shelter to establish the Performance Art Platform in the Merkazim Building in south Tel Aviv, a large space that realized the initial vision of its founding members by providing a home for a true art center.

After a brief period of activity, the Merkazim Building burned down in a fire, a hard blow and terrible loss of art and archival materials that are irreplaceable. But the Shelter 209 NPO managed to weather the crisis, re-establishing the Performance Art Platform in Tel Aviv's New Central Bus Station.

The Performance Art Platform, in addition to providing a home for Ensemble 209 and annual performance art workshops, also offered exhibition possibilities and a place for active artists to collaborate. Throughout several intense years, a multitude of artists performed and worked there, including veteran and young artists from Israel and abroad, conducting monthly programs that constituted both stage and laboratory, as well as performance events that broadened the gamut of artistic possibilities in the center. Later on, many of these activities merged in the International Zaz Festival for Performance Art.

This chapter maps the works of artists presented during the monthly programs and performance events initiated by the Performance Art Platform.