PANIM: Faces of Art and Culture in Israel
November/December, 1995
(PANIM is an informational bulletin produced by the Cultural and Scientific Affairs Division of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.)
Cover story: Jerusalem 3000 celebrations around the globe
Columns:
FILM
- Oscar Nominations
- Leilasedeh award in Montreal
New Films Released:
* "There was no War in '72"
* "Actors"
THEATER
- Cameri Theater to Argentina
BOOKS
- Meir Shalev's latest novel (photo of Shalev)
- Amichai gets Macedonian Golden Wreath award
- European boom in Hebrew Translation
MUSIC
- Jerusalem Smphony Orchestra 95/96 season dedicated to JERUSALEM 3000
Spotlight: Rami Be'er, Choreographer
Shalom-Salaam:
1. "Camera with no Boundaries"
2. "The Jasmin Bush"
3. Peace Festival, Brussels
4. Sculpture garden - Beit Hagefen
Events:
1. Acre Fringe Theater Festival
2. Haifa Film Festival, "Neighbors"
3. Ilana Goor Museum opens in Jaffa
COVER STORY
JERUSALEM 3000: Celebrations Around the Globe
From September 1995 to December 1996, over 70 countries around the world will commemorate 3000 years since King David established Jerusalem as the capital of his kingdom. 130 Jerusalem 3000 committees in 21 countries and 110 diplomatic missions around the world are simultaneously coordinating a myriad of cultural, artistic and educational events that will mark this historic trimillennium.
Cities such as Athens, Santiago, Budapest and Suva (Fiji) are naming streets, parks or city squares in Jerusalem's honor. Other cities including Paris, New Delhi and Los Angeles will host photographic or artistic exhibits on the theme of Jerusalem. Russia and Costa Rica will issue special stamps to mark this unique anniversary. In Holland, a variety of tulip for export will be named for Jerusalem.
Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert: "Through the multitude of activities of the local committees, we can help bring the magic and splendor of Jerusalem to a worldwide audience."
Judaica exhibits, sporting competitions, book exhibitions, Jerusalem bazaars, song festivals and concerts, literary anthologies and performances by Jerusalem-based music, dance and theater companies are but some of the activities taking place under the banner of Jerusalem 3000. Others include:
* Nicosia, Cyprus will host a Jerusalem Week (Spring, 1996).
* The Royal Opera of the Czech Republic will perform specially-commissioned works in Prague as part of the celebration.
* The Batsheva Dance Company opens the Canadian festivities.
* The Dead Sea Scrolls will be on view at the US Library of Congress
(Washington DC).
The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra will perform new works dedicated to Jerusalem 3000 as part of the Cultural Olympics in Atlanta (July, 1996).
* The new Jewish Museum of Atlanta will open with an exhibit on Jerusalem 3000 (April, 1996).
* The "City of David" exhibit will be on display at the Boca Raton Museum, Florida.
* A special booth on Jerusalem will be part of the 1996 Geneva Book Fair. Also on hand will be an Israeli writer from Jerusalem or one who writes about Jerusalem.
* In Sweden, a television quiz show on Jerusalem is being planned.
* A festival of Jewish and Israeli music with the theme of Jerusalem is scheduled for 1996 in Copenhagen, Europe's cultural capital-designate for that year.
* Renowned Argentinean artist Carlos Alonzo will display a large exhibit of his works inspired by Jerusalem at one of Buenos Aires' main museums
(May, 1996).
* A writing contest on Jerusalem takes place in Ethiopia (October, 1995).
FILM
Leilasede ("Passover") Wins Screenplay Award at Montreal World Film Festival
Shemi Zarhin's comic drama, "Passover," was singled out from among 20 international films for the best screenplay award (written by Zarhin) as part of the Montreal World Film Festival's official competition. The film's producers, Amitan Manelzon and Michael Sharfstein, are currently fielding offers by European and American film distributors. Negotiations are also underway to purchase the screenplay rights and produce an American version of the film in Hollywood.
Israeli Academy Awards Ceremony at End of October
Ten feature films, 15 documentaries and eight TV dramas and serials will be competing on October 31 for the Israeli Film Academy awards. As is the case every year, the winner of the Best Picture award will be Israel's entry in the Oscar's foreign film category.
NEW FILMS RELEASED:
"There Was No War in -72" (Be-72 lo haita milchama): 14 year-old Yoni is basically a good kid with a domineering and short-tempered father whom he cannot seem to please. As Yoni is once again expelled from school, Yoni's parents fight him and each other to find an appropriate solution. This sometimes harsh, sometimes gentle slice-of-life film opens a window on to a boy's coming of age, the disintegration of the family unit, alienation and hope. Directed by David Kreiner. Produced by Yenit Kreiner. (photo)
"Actors" (Sah'kanim): This film follows the a group of young, energetic actors fresh out of drama school, full of dreams of success. In the real world of the professional theater, however, not everyone survives. The reality they soon discover is disillusioning, cruel and unglamorous. Yet, somehow, everyone grows and learns from their experiences and choices. Directed by Roni Ninio. Produced by David Tur and Riki Shelach. (photo)
THEATER
Cameri Theater in Buenos Aires
The Cameri Theater will become Israel's first theater company to perform in Argentina when it brings its production of Sheindale to Buenos Aires' San Martin Theater for four shows in November. Written by Amnon Levy and Rami Danon, the drama tells the story of a young woman's marriage that falls victim to power struggles in a Hassidic sect. The play is performed in Hebrew with a simultaneous translation in Spanish. Cameri actors, together with local Jewish actors, will also perform excerpts from other Israeli plays in Spanish, Yiddish and Hebrew. The tour is sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Culture and Arts Administration of the Ministry of Science and Arts and the Foreign Ministry's Division of Cultural and Scientific Affairs.
MUSIC
Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra Celebrates 3000 Years of Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra's 1995/96 season will be dedicated to Jerusalem 3000. A number of compositions honoring Jerusalem will be performed, including pieces commissioned specially by the orchestra from Shlomo Gronich, Menahem Wiesenberg and Yinam Leef. Jerusalem-born Leef's "Visions of Stone City" will be peformed at the season opener. The piece includes a motif from the Book of Isaiah and melodic material influenced by traditional chants of Ethiopian Jewry, as well as modern elements. The eternal yearning for Jerusalem and its universal symbolism are at the heart of the work.
Japanese wins 1st Bernstein Conducting Competition
The jury of the First Leonard Bernstein Jerusalem International Conducting Competition awarded the title of Leonard Bernstein Jerusalem Laureate to Yutaka Sado of Kyoto, Japan. Sado, resident conductor of the Pacific Music Festival and principal guest conductor of Osaka's Century Orchestra and the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux, won a $25,000 prize and engagement opportunities with the competition's sponsoring institutions. On November 16, he will appear in a gala concert with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv.
LITERATURE
New Work by Meir Shalev
Internationally acclaimed author Meir Shalev ("The Blue Mountain," "Esau," "As a Few Days") based his new work, Be'ikar -al ahava ("Mainly About Love"), on a series of lectures he gave in 1994 while writer-in-residence at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. The book deals with aspects of love and fate, nature and fantasy, memory and beauty in works ranging from the world classics to Hebrew literature. Published in Hebrew by Am Oved.
Poet Amichai Awarded Golden Wreath in Macedonia
Following in a long line of distinguished poets including Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz Allen Ginsburg and Ted Hughes, Yehuda Amichai was awarded the prestigious Golden Wreath at Macedonia's 34th annual poetry festival in the town of Struga. In honor of the occasion, two volumes of Amichai's poems were published in the Macedonian translation.
European "Boom" in Translation of Hebrew Literature
The translation of Hebrew literature into European languages has grown steadily over the years. In the past five years alone, some 440 titles
(including poetry, prose, drama, anthologies and children's literature) have been translated into the 25 European languages surveyed. This represents three times the number of titles published from 1975-1979.
SPOTLIGHT
RAMI BE'ER: KEEPING IN STEP WITH THE TIMES
Picking apples, milking cows and choreography seem an unlikely mix. Unless you happen to be Rami Be'er. Born and raised on Kibbutz Ga'aton in northern Israel, a stone's throw from the Lebanese border, Be'er is the house choreographer and assistant artistic director of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. At 38, he has performed all over the world, choreographed scores of short and full-length productions (for adults and children) and still serves food once a week in the kibbutz's communal dining hall.
Something about Be'er is quintessentially Israeli. Casual in a T-shirt and well-worn jeans, if Be'er was raised on agrarian idealism (his parents, Holocaust survivors from Hungary, helped establish the kibbutz in 1948), music and dance were just as much a part of his early grooming. His father architect by day, musician by night taught his son and three daughters to play musical instruments (Be'er learned the cello) and every weekend, the family still gathers for an evening of chamber music.
As for dance, lessons in rhythm and movement were as much a part of the educational experience on the kibbutz "along with playing soccer" as learning to read and write, recalls Be'er. Ga'aton is home to the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, founded by artistic director Yehudit Arnon, also a Holocaust survivor. For Be'er, choosing a career in dance was a natural choice.
Be'er is friendly in a fidgety, adrenaline-charged kind of way. Eager to answer questions (quickly), Be'er leaves no doubts as to who is the boss on stage and off. "There is no democracy in art," says this proponent of communal living. "Just say I've worked with many foreign companies here and abroad," he responds when asked for a verbal curriculum vitae. In recent years, he produced two works for BUHNEN-Graz, Austria, and has lately returned from Denmark where he set a piece on the New Danish Dance Theater. Artistic influences? "You don't have to name names," (Mats Ek, Susanne Linke, Jiri Kylian) he says and as for awards, "You only need to write that I've won a few" (first prize in the Gertrud Kraus Choreographic Competition, the Yair Shapiro Award for contribution to dance in Israel). From a less charming person, such dictatorial vagueness might easily be maddening.
Be'er joined the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company as a dancer in 1980 upon completing his army service. He began choreographing short pieces from the very beginning and, in 1981, he received a scholarship to Jacob's Pillow. He rarely dances any more. Does he miss it? Yes, he says, not all that convincingly. Responsible for creating props, lighting, costumes, music, not to mention the actual dancing, choreography, he says, is "all-consuming." Dancers in the company (most hail from agricultural settlements) work an average of 12 hours a day; Be'er says he works 24. "You don't go home and leave work behind," says Be'er.
The transition from dancer to choreographer, Be'er says "is something that developed as I discovered my own way of expressing myself through dance." And what way is that? In a highly suggestive manner, Be'er explores contemporary social and political issues, always leaving the final interpretation up to the audience a sort of Joycean approach to current events. His ballets have touched upon the Intifada ("Diary of a Reservist," 1989), the crisis in the kibbutz movement ("Real Time," 1991) and the troubling complexities of urban growth ("Naked City," 1993). "Aide Memoire" (1994) is probably Be'er's most successful and highly polished piece to date. It deals with invoking memory, specifically of the Holocaust, through a tight weaving of images, sound and lighting. The company just concluded a successful tour of the Far East in which they performed the powerful full-length production. Like his other works, "Aide Memoire" is, according to Be'er, neither a narrative nor an abstract ballet. "It is a story without a story," suggests Be'er almost mischievously.
Sparse, functional sets and props, minimalist costumes and fluid, sometimes agonizing dance movements, Be'er's ballets are not sit-back-and-relax entertainment nor does he intend them to be.
Does Be'er view the stage as a sophisticated soap box? "Not as a forum to express my own opinions," insists Be'er. His aim, he says, is to involve viewers in pertinent, timely issues: he wants them to leave the theater moved, provoked and, perhaps, even a little changed from the way they came in.
Shelley Kleiman
SHALOM-SALAAM
A PICTURE IS WORTH A 1000 WORDS: "CAMERA WITH NO BOUNDARIES"
"Sing a song for peace. Don't whisper a prayer" sang Shlomo Bar of Habreira Hativit as he set the tone for the opening of a new photographic exhibit at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv. For the five contributing photographers, the project represents both personal as well as national milestones, the reason being that three of the photographers are Israeli and two are Jordanian. In spring this year, the Israelis went to Jordan and the Jordanians, with the assistance of the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Division of Cultural and Scientific Affairs, came to Israel to capture their impressions of each others' countries on film.
The project, part of the Ministry of Tourism's "Peace Tourism Year" umbrella of activities, was initiated by Roni Sofer, photographer and photo editor of the nature journal, "The Nature of Things." In the wake of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, Sofer sought to express the peace in pictures, after so many years of documenting conflict and war. The culture and society of the other side, so near and yet off limits for so long, could now be viewed through a camera lens. In the end, each side is also afforded an opportunity to see themselves in a new light.
Each photographer chose a particular topic close to his/her heart. Zoharab Markarian (Jordan), King Hussein's official photographer for 15 years, had always dreamed of photographing the Israeli side of the Jordan river. For the project, he shot the settlements and agriculture along the Israeli banks, the markets, even women soldiers returning home for the weekend.
Mihiran Kizirian (Jordan) chose urban scenes of the towns and people on the Mediterranean coast as his subjects. Roni Sofer (Israel) photographed Amman and its Armenian community.
Varda Polak-Sahm (Israel) focused on Jordanian women, using her camera as a bridge for communication with the peasant woman selling eggs on the roadside, the young fortune teller reading coffee grounds, the belly dancer and westernized women on the city streets.
Bouky Boaz (Israel,) who worked in the Jordan Valley field school, has always been intrigued by what lay beyond the other bank of the river. With his photos of the breathtaking Jordanian landscapes and nature scenes, Boaz closes a circle.
Plans are being made for the exhibit, consisting of ten photos by each photographer, to be shown next in Amman on the occasion of King Hussein's birthday.
"THE JASMINE BUSH:" An Israeli-Arab Theatrical Experience
The first collaborative theatrical effort by an Israeli playwright and a Palestinian writer, "The Jasmine Bush," emerged out of a 1993 conflict resolution workshop at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Two of the workshop participants, Aliza Elion-Israeli, playwright and founder of the Theater Company Jerusalem, and Dr. Ali Hussein Qleibo, a well-known Palestinian researcher, writer and painter, wrote the play as a workshop exercise.
"The Jasmine Bush" is a play-within-a-play, dealing with two reunions. Two writers, he an Arab and she Jewish, who were once in love years ago in New York, are reunited when they set out to write a play as part of a workshop. In their story, another reunion takes place, one between Itzik, a Jewish boy, Riad, an Arab boy, and his sister, Abir, who shared a unique adolescent friendship. Years later, Itzik is an intelligence agent and Riad is active in the PLO. Itzik sets up a meeting with Riad in a Jerusalem cafe in order to arrest him. As fate would have it, it is the same cafe in which the two playwright/lovers meet. Abir also arrives to seek Itzik's help in finding her missing son. For a brief moment, the innocent love and carefree memories of childhood return, side by side with the reignited spark between the playwrights themselves. Time stands still. Dimensions are blurred. Life's routine, the social and political alliances disappear. That moment passes, however, and everything, conflicts and resolutions alike, are tragically ended when a grenade is tossed into the cafe.
The play, directed by Serge Ouaknine and performed in English, Hebrew and Arabic, aims to create a dialog and humanize the Arab-Israeli conflict. In dealing with deeply human issues and experiences such as love, the play transcends political ideologies and takes on universal proportions. The "Jasmine Bush" was produced by the Theater Company Jerusalem and the Gerard Behar Center.
JEWISH-ARAB SCULPTURE GARDEN IN THE GALILEE
Viewing the Galilee as a symbol of peace and coexistence, Beit Hagefen, the Arab Jewish cultural center in Haifa, has initiated the construction of a sculpture garden in the Moslem village of Kaukab Abu Elhija. The garden, which is currently being installed, is located in the western hills of the Lower Galilee, surrounded by a panoramic view of Israel's north. 18 Israeli sculptors - Arab and Jewish, including new immigrants - and four Palestinian artists are participating in the project, each donating pieces. Veteran Israeli artist Yigal Tumarkin is constructing a piece entitled "War and Peace" invoking the hope and the passage from war to peace.
The village is investing its own funds in the infrastructure and village residents are participating in volunteer work and hospitality for the artists. The sculpture garden is being built entirely from donations and with the support of various government offices including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption and the municipality of Haifa.
EVENTS
NEW MUSEUM OF ISRAELI ART OPENS IN OLD JAFFA
In a newly-renovated 18th century stone building that was originally an inn for Jewish pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, Ilana Goor, noted Israeli artist, sculptress, jewelry and furniture designer, opened her new museum. Inside the vaulted, three-story space said to be the first house in Jaffa to be lived in by Jews, are Goor's bold life-works created from wood, glass, bronze and iron, as well as pieces by other Israeli and international artists collected by Goor over the years. The Israeli artists on exhibit include Yaacov Agam, Marcel Janco, Uri Lifschitz and Yigal Tumarkin. Among the foreign artists are Niki de Sainte Phalle, Henri Moore, and Robert Rauschenberg.
Born in Tiberias, Ilana Goor studied art at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. She began sculpting while in Los Angeles in the late 1960's. She has since exhibited in major museums in the United States, Europe and Japan and her sculptures have been commissioned for numerous public spaces around Israel. Goor's concept of living with art invites the visitor to touch and use her functional works.
The museum's plans for the coming year include changing exhibits of young Israeli artists and hosting foreign artists and lecturers in the museum's dramatic setting.
CELEBRATING FRINGE THEATER ACRE-STYLE
The strange and off-beat, the innovative and avant-garde, mind-bending and eye-opening, anything goes, or rather went, at the Acre Festival of Alternative Theater, held over the Succot holiday. With a renewed emphasis on "alternative," this year's festival featured 28 productions, including 18 original commissioned works. The Israeli public flocked to shows ranging from a female version of "Waiting for Godot" and the multi-disciplined "Sleepwalking," to the audience-participatory -The Wedding" and "Underground Comics." Cabaret, installations, pyrotechnics, movement theater and street performers were among the other options for visitors who swamped Acre in the hundreds of thousands during the week-long festival.
Two productions in Arabic (one from East Jerusalem's Al-Kasaba Theater and one from the town of Shfar'am), a concert of Arab music by the Acre Theater Center and Israeli singer Zahava Ben's interpretations of the songs of Umm Kulthum were part of the considerable Arab cultural presence this year.
Festival artistic director, David Ma'ayan, with considerable support from the artists themselves, canceled the traditional competition and awards this year. In showcasing alternative art, festival organizers deemed it inappropriate to compare different types of pieces and to delineate criteria for selecting "the best." The decision to hold this year's event in a non-competitive format shifted the Festival's focus to the experience of the festival itself. Rather than being a springboard to mainstream repertory theater, the Acre Festival has become a goal to aspire to, in and of itself.
11TH HAIFA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (October 9-14): Good Films Make Good Neighbors
Once again the city of Haifa opened its arms to its neighbors along the Mediterranean at the 11th annual International Film Festival. This year's festival, the second under the title "Neighbors," highlighted the cultures and cinemas of the Mediterranean basin. The program featured a tribute to Tunisian cinema and a Marcel Pagnol retrospective honoring the famed French director/playwright/author and 100 years of cinema. Among the festival's distinguished guests, brought with the help of the Foreign Ministry's Division of Cultural and Scientific Affairs, were film-makers from Tunisia, Jordan and Algeria. Turkish and Egyptian academics participated in an international symposium organized in cooperation with the Liberal Arts Department of Haifa University. A day dedicated to examining the culture and people of the ancient Egyptian city of Alexandria, an Israeli music video contest and premieres of three new Israeli feature films and nine documentaries also packed the festival schedule.
New Israeli feature films that premiered at the festival were:
* Clara hakdosha ("Saint Clara") - directors Uri Sivan and Ari Fulman, producers Marek Rozenbaum and Uri Sabag
* Laila lavan ("White Night") - director and producer Arnon Tzadok
* Osher lelo gvul ("Everlasting Joy or the Life and Adventures of B. Spinoza as Reported by his Vigilant Neighbors") - director Igal Burstein, producer Chaim Sharir
In the Israeli film competition, Dan Wolman's "The Distance" received the festival's award for best 1994-5 feature. The decision was reached by a panel of Israeli film critics who also awarded Gila Almagor the prize for best actress in the film Sh'hur.