Panim- Faces of Art and culture in Israel- November-December 1996

Art Focus 2 - A Closer Look at Israeli Art Today

The second Art Focus project gets underway from November 18 through December 18. 44 exhibits by Israeli and foreign artists will be seen on the occasion by international museum directors, art curators, editors of art journals and the Israeli public. Project directors Ayala Zacks-Abramov and Noa Aviram defined the goal of the biannual event as the creation of a suitable framework in which to expose both the local and international public to contemporary Israeli art and to place it within an international context. It is also the hope of Art Focus to establish the foundations for an art biennale encompassing the Mediterranean basin.

Jerusalem's Teddy Stadium is the alternative setting for the four central exhibits produced by Art Focus 2, which run along two primary lines: the meeting of Israeli and foreign artists who share similar artistic languages and solo shows by Israeli artists.The project provides an occasion for Israeli, Palestinian and artists from other parts of the Middle East to be seen side by side.

"Remote Connections" (curator: Amnon Barzel, Berlin) and "Hide and Seek" (curator: Ami Barak, Montpellier) bring together Israeli and foreign artists in the fields of photography, video and multimedia in a manner that reflects the modes of communication in today's multi-cultural society. In "Remote Connections," artists from Israel and countries as far apart as Australia, Finland, Angola, China, Morocco, and Iran deal with a central characteristic of our times, namely "global displacement," resulting in the remapping of contemporary art away from traditional cultural centers and necessitating the acknowledgment of the "other" and his culture. The initiative of the Vaino Aaltonen Museum in Turku, Finland, the exhibit will be shown at a gallery in Graz, Austria, before traveling to other museums in Europe.

"Hide and Seek" examines the meeting between east and west. Through the innovative use of video and film, the exhibit sets out to show that artists, no matter where they are from, work on transversal paths. The exhibit includes artists from France, Great Britain, Spain, Germany and the United States alongside Israeli artists.

Two solo shows have also been curated for the event. In her installation "The Eruv of Jerusalem" (curator: Yona Fischer), French artist Sophie Calle adds photographic and textual dimensions to a map delineating the religious borders (the eruv) of Jerusalem. Israeli Orit Adar's show "What Had to be Proven" expresses a form of urban fear using "peeping sculptures" made from old doors and computerized photographs (curator: Monica Lavie).

Another 40 exhibits within the framework of Art Focus 2 will be unveiled at prominent museums and galleries. Additional projects and exhibits outside of the official Art Focus framework will also be on display around the country, increasing the scale of exposure for local artists.

In the first Art Focus in 1994, 93 exhibits of contemporary Israeli art were held throughout the country in 77 venues ranging from museums and galleries to bomb shelters and bus stations. This time, the project has concentrated its offerings primarily on Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, making them more easily accessible. Museum directors, curators and journalists from 13 countries have been invited to survey Art Focus 2 during the first week of the project.

The project is sponsored by the Culture and Art Administration (Ministry of Education and Culture), the Division of Cultural and Scientific Affairs (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Ministry of Tourism, the Jerusalem Foundation and the Municipality of Jerusalem among others.

SPOTLIGHT

Rena Schenfeld's house might very well be haunted. A former Martha Graham protege and Israel's leading exponent of the Graham aesthetic until decisively rejecting it to chart out -- with much success -- her own dance territory, Schenfeld brings up the legendary Graham so often one would expect her to pop out of a closet and order a cup of tea.

At first glance, there is little to connect Schenfeld with Graham's commanding persona. Quiet and unassuming about her career as a dancer and choreographer, even Schenfeld's apartment reflects her lack of pretension. Her awards -- and she has won quite a few, including three David's Harps -- are half hidden and not sitting on any proverbial mantelpiece; her furniture has a tired, is-it-antique-or-just-worn-out appearance; the coffee is instant.

On stage, it is a different story altogether. Just as she transforms the most prosaic objects into poetic statements, she herself is metamorphosed into a captivating presence of great dramatic intensity. If her techniques are frequently experimental, her themes -- joy and sorrow, fear and loneliness, love and remembrance -- are always universal. Acclaimed in Europe and the United States, she now has her sights set on the Far East and India.

Approaching 58 -- the fine lines that frame her face are almost choreographic -- Schenfeld began dancing when she was 12 at Mia Arbatova's Tel Aviv studio. It was a local performance by Martha Graham that convinced Schenfeld to abandon classical ballet in favor of modern dance. And it was Martha Graham who, a few years later, offered Schenfeld a stipend to study in New York, where she spent the first few months at Graham's School of Contemporary Dance before moving on to Julliard where she learned the ABC's of choreography.

Back in Israel, Schenfeld helped found the Batsheva Dance Company (1963), where she served as its principal dancer (and for a short period, artistic director) for well over a decade, working with such choreographic greats as Jerome Robbins, John Butler, Robert Cohan and, of course, Martha Graham, who made a thrice yearly pilgrimage to Israel.

Compelled by a need to "try out new material in a way that wasn't possible at a repertoire company," Schenfeld left Batsheva in 1979 to form the Rena Schenfeld Dance Theater (she now also runs a dance school). Simply put: "I revolted against Martha Graham -- her strong story lines, her overt Freudianism, her heavy reliance on musical accompaniment."

Though Schenfeld's dances are never purely abstract, her knee-jerk reaction against Graham led her to cleaner, more philosophically-inspired dances. Since 1978, Schenfeld has choreographed some 30 pieces -- some solo, some for her troupe -- categorizing her choreographic career into Picassoesque periods.

First, largely inspired by the Bauhaus movement, came her "geometric" phase ("Sticks," "Threads," "Tin Dance and Hair") in which she manipulates everyday objects -- often becoming an integral part of them -- revealing more of their qualities than is at first apparent. Ribbons become a restrictive web, sticks evolve into wings, polished squares (a signature Schenfeld prop) are turned into mirrors to ward off loneliness.

Schenfeld refers to her next phase as nature-inspired ("Silk," "Waves"), followed by her light and shadow period ("Azure and Shadow," "Light," Sham Mayim), which she says was initially inspired by the darkening and subsequently fading fear of the Gulf War and by her own personal trauma of having her son (she also has a daughter who has danced with her professionally) drafted into the army.

Schenfeld reveals nothing about what she is currently working on and only hints that literature has become a commanding influence at this point in her career.

As she approaches her sixth decade, Schenfeld shows no signs of letting up. Rehearsing, creating, teaching, Schenfeld works all day, everyday. Her latest piece will premiere at Tel Aviv's Suzanne Dellal Center in February and she has performances scheduled throughout the coming year.

For Schenfeld, dance is the ultimate form of human expression, a means of reaching -- for both dancer and spectator -- a totally different level of consciousness, of "reaching into the inner depths of one's soul." There is something almost messianic about her devotion to dance. "If more people danced," she says with a sigh, "perhaps, perhaps, there would be less war."

SHALOM-SALAAM

Artist Dani Karavan Named UNESCO's First Peace Artist

Israeli artist Dani Karavan is the first international artist to be honored with the title of "UNESCO's Peace Artist," an honor on par with the organization's title of goodwill ambassador. The decision by UNESCO Secretary General Federico Mayor was made in light of Karavan's work with the organization and especially for the Square of Tolerance which Karavan built at UNESCO's Paris headquarters in memory of the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin (PANIM July-August 1996). One of the leading environmental artists in the world, Karavan said he will use his new appointment to advance an issue which he views as particularly important in these times: combating violence in the media.

Peace Exhibit Brings a Smile to the US

If children represent the future and peace is their hope for a better life, then humor, according to New York educator Maureen Kushner, is the bridge between the two. For a period of close to two years, from fall 1994 to summer 1996, Kushner visited some 24 schools throughout Israel at the invitation of the Israeli Ministry of Education. Working with Jewish, Arab, Druze and Bedouin children, as well as with Ethiopian and Russian immigrants, she used a unique method of teaching that combines humor and art to encourage students to communicate their fears and express their visions of peace and hope. Through humor, Kushner was able to break down the invisible socio-political barriers and create an environment of trust among her students. The resulting murals and paintings reflect the children's cultural and social values, their feelings and hopes for peace to replace the ever-present threat of war.

A selection of the projects produced by Kushner and her students has been gathered into an exhibit aptly entitled "Peace Through Humor." It is currently touring the United States under the auspices of the Public Affairs Division of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and was shown in Oklahoma City on the anniversary of the terrorist bombing there, as a symbol of solidarity with the community.

Israeli photographer Varda Polak-Sahm was awarded the silver medal at the Second International Show of the Jordanian Photographic Society under the slogan, "Peace for the Universe." She won for a photograph of the Dome of the Rock. The picture was one of a series she took documenting the golden mosque's restoration that was made into an album and given as a personal gift by the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin to King Hussein at their first official meeting in Washington DC. 250 photographers from around the world, including seven Israelis, participated in the competition. Other participating photographers came from Syria, Egypt, China, Mauritania, Belgium and Switzerland.

An official invitation to Israeli photographers to participate in the show was extended by the Jordanian embassy in Tel Aviv through the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Polak-Sahm traveled to Amman at the end of October, through the assistance of the ministry's Division of Cultural and Scientific Affairs, to accept the award, the first given to an Israeli in an Arab country, at a ceremony held at the Royal Cultural Center. Previously, Polak-Sahm took part in the joint Israeli-Jordanian exhibit, "Camera with no Boundaries" (PANIM November-December, 1995).

FILM

MoMA Hosts Jerusalem Film and TV School Retrospective

Calling their films "fresh, quirky, surprising and pithy," Larry Kardish, curator and coordinator of film exhibitions at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) introduced New Yorkers to the wealth of young film talent from the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem, at a retrospective in mid-November. The four-day event opened November 9 in the presence of New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Jerusalem mayor, Teddy Kollek. The Jerusalem school was chosen in light of the international success of its films. Kardish described the school as a "happy discovery," "an unexpected center of film energy...sending Israeli cinema in a new and exciting direction." The retrospective was sponsored by the Jerusalem Foundation and supported by the Consulate General of Israel in New York and the Foreign Ministry's Division of Cultural and Scientific Affairs.

New Films Released:

"Underdogs: A War Movie" (Beit Shean: Seret milhama): The Beit Shean soccer team's triumph over national champions Maccabi Haifa in the final game of the 1995 season enabled Hapoel Beit Shean to remain in the National League.

When filming began in April, no one could have possibly foreseen the Cinderella story that would unfold during the the latter part of the soccer season. An underdog team from a small, working class town of mainly Moroccan immigrants that lives and breaths soccer, provides all the excitement and suspense of a true-life do-or-die tale as they face off against the "rich kids" from Haifa. From the lives of the players, their families and their fans to the fast-paced action on the field, this documentary film could not have turned out better if it had been designed in Hollywood. This year's winner of the Israeli "Oscar" for best documentary, the film has been sold to the BBC. Directed by Rino Tzror and Doron Tzabari. Produced by Avi Armoza.

BOOKS

The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature (ITHL) announced the release of a number of anthologies:

• The Oxford Book of Hebrew Short Stories, recently published by Oxford University Press in cooperation with the ITHL, is a new survey of Hebrew prose in English and includes pieces by classic writers such as Yosef Hayyim Brenner and Mendele Mokher Sefarim, as well as contemporary authors like Orly Castel-Bloom.

• Soon to be released in French by Gallimard, Paris, are two anthologies, The Modern Hebrew Poem and The Modern Hebrew Short Story. Both collections survey the wide range of styles and subjects in the development of Israeli poetry and literature.

• The ITHL's Anthology of Hebrew Poems on the Theme of Peace includes more than 80 poems spanning the entire modern period. Among the poets whose work appears in the anthology are David Avidan, Natan Zach, Dahlia Ravikovitch, Yehuda Amichai and Maya Bejerano. Translated by the eminent Indian poet and translator Dom Moraes, the anthology was compiled in collaboration with Israeli poet Aryeh Sivan and will be published later this year by Viking/Penguin, New Delhi.

• An anthology of contemporary women writers has also been released recently in English by Frank Cass, Great Britain. New Women's Writing From Israel includes stories in a wide range of styles by writers such as Amalia Kahana-Carmon, Shulamith Hareven, Leah Aini and Orly Castel-Bloom.

A new anthology of Hebrew poetry translated into Vietnamese was published recently. Initiated by Israeli ambassador David Matnai, the pocket-size compilation includes works by leading Israeli poets. From Rachel, Nathan Alterman and Lea Goldberg to Nathan Zach, Dahlia Ravikovitch, Yehuda Amichai and Meir Wieseltier, the anthology surveys the development of Israeli poetry through the years. The book was distributed by the Israeli embassy in Hanoi to literary and cultural institutes, writers' guilds, libraries and literature faculties throughout Vietnam.

Israeli Children's Books in China

The ITHL reports that a wide selection of Israeli children's books will be released in China within the coming year by the Juvenile and Children Publishing House, Shanghai. On the list of books to be published are two works by Yoram Kaniuk, "Yovi, Pebble and the Elephant," and "The House Where Cockroaches Live to a Ripe Old Age," as well as Gila Almagor's widely-translated "Aviya's Summer," Nira Harel's "One Too Many," and "The Boy from Over There" by Tamar Bergman.

Shaked's Historiography of Hebrew Literature Translated into English

Professor Gershon Shaked's comprehensive five-volume work "Hebrew Narrative Fiction 1880-1980" has been translated by Yael Lotan into English. This encyclopedic review spans 100 years of modern Hebrew fiction, from its European roots to contemporary Israel. Shaked, a leading scholar and Israel Prize recipient, provides insight into socio-historical factors that have influenced and shaped modern Jewish culture and literature over the past century. The work has already been published in German by Suhrkamp. The English manuscript is available from the ITHL.

NEW PRODUCTIONS

Three historical events, three Jewish rituals and three families. These are the basic components of Shmuel Hasfari's trilogy of plays on the Israeli experience, the last of which, Shiv'a, recently opened at Tel Aviv's Beit Lessin Theater. Over 15 years have passed since Hasfari wrote the first version of Kiddush as a university exercise and until he completed Shiv'a. All three plays, also directed by Hasfari, are currently being performed by Beit Lessin.

Hasfari explores the essence of Israeli-Jewish identity through the experiences of an all-Israeli family during a particularly critical decade of Israeli history that encompassed the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War and Sadat's visit to Jerusalem (1967-1977). Although each part of the trilogy features a different family, the characteristics are similar: middle-class parents who immigrated to Israel from Eastern Europe in the wake of the Holocaust and the subsequent dilemma between their traditional, religious identity and the secularism of their Israeli-born children. To add to the sense of continuity, Hasfari uses the same two actors (Miriam Zohar and Ilan Dar) in the roles of the mother and father in all three plays.

Coming himself from a religious family, although secular today, Hasfari draws on the reality around him and invokes religious rites as the common denominator in the Jewish-Israeli experience. Even in the face of secularism, these traditions remain to some extent in the lives of all Israeli Jews. His tragi-comic treatment of these situations - the family gatherings that so often spark confrontation - leads many Israeli theater-goers to see themselves or parts of their lives in his plays. He considers his plays as warnings against being slaves to the past.

In Kiddush, Yossi, the only son of Arieh and Pnina Shiloni, is about to celebrate his bar mitzvah. The play shows Yossi growing up between the traditional religious ways of his parents and his own secularism, between memories of the Holocaust terror and the heroism of the Six-Day War. In both good and bad times, the family always comes together for the kiddush, the traditional Shabbat blessing.

Hametz (Hebrew for leavened bread, not kosher for Passover use), the production that swept the first annual Israel Theater Awards, including the award for play of the year, takes place during Passover, six months prior to the outbreak of the Yom Kippur war in 1973. The family of Nechemia Malach, a dismissed Mossad agent, gathers around the holiday table, anxious because one of the family members is missing. Ghosts and demons from the past, hidden resentments and a cross-country chase after a man on a scooter dubbed the "Zionist terrorist," cast a shadow on the holiday festivities.

In Shiv'a, the final installment, Tuvia, a religious teacher, packs his bags and tells his family he is going to the north of the country. When the family receives a phone call telling them that he committed suicide in London, they are in shock. To make matters worse, nobody comes to Tuvia's funeral because they are all at home, in front of the television, watching Anwar Sadat's speech to the Knesset. The elation about the imminent peace with Egypt infringes on the mourning and vice versa. During the seven-day mourning period of the shiv'a, many family issues from the past rise to the surface and open old wounds creating additional havoc between the family members. They grasp at any and all Jewish symbols - a funeral, mourning, birthdays, brith milah - in an attempt to fill the ever-increasing emptiness in their lives. It was the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that, according to Hasfari, enabled him to deal with the subject of mourning so forthrightly.

EVENTS

12th International Haifa Film Festival Comes to Town

"Neighbors," the name of Haifa's international film festival held over the Sukkot holiday, represents the city's and the festival's way of life stemming from its location on the Mediterranean and its long history of Jewish-Arab co-existence. In that spirit, the festival announced the establishment of a new competition, the Golden Anchor, for full-length feature films either shot in Mediterranean countries or whose directors or screenwriters come from the area. The film selected for the first $25,000 prize was "Salut Cousin" by Algerian director Merzack Allouache.

In the annual Israeli film competition, the prize was awarded to Kitzur toldot ha'ohavim ("Lovers' Short History"), directed by Yitzhak Tzepel Yeshurun. "Anaphase - The Film," Levi Zini's adaptation of Ohad Naharin's multi-faceted dance piece for the Batsheva Dance Company, won the award for best documentary film. All together, six new Israeli features and ten documentary films debuted at the festival.

Also on the occasion of the festival was "Silent Cinema - Israel Before Israel," the first ever retrospective of silent films made in Israel before the establishment of the state. Organized by the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive last year for the 14th Pordenone Silent Film Festival, 35 films spanning the period between 1911 and 1932 were screened. Sources included the Spielberg Archive collection and archives around the world. Prominent among these were works by Yaacov Ben-Dov, Israel's most important early film pioneer. Amateur films, commercial efforts and propaganda films by the national institutions were also represented.

"Neighbors," the Haifa Film Festival is sponsored by the Foreign Ministry's Division of Cultural and Scientific Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of

Two Arabic productions, Beit Hagefen Theater's "Harvest Nights" by the famed Egyptian playwright Mahmoud Diab and the Acre Theater Center's "Arab Dream," shared the prestigious award for best production in the competition portion of the recent Israeli Fringe Theater Festival, Acre. Directors of both productions, Moni Yossef for "Arab Dream" and Riad Masrawe for "Harvest Nights," also shared the prize for best direction.

Masrawe said he waited 20 years to direct Diab's 1970 social commentary about a beautiful woman, Seniora, who is desired by all the men in her village but who is also considered a curse. "Harvest Nights" has been selected by the Cameri Theater to perform in Tel Aviv using simultaneous translation and plans are being made to take the production abroad.

"Arab Dream" by Roi Rashkes and the Diwan group of the Acre Theater Center explores the dream of an Israeli Arab in an examination of identity versus stereotypes. The first part of the production introduces the audience to an Arab atmosphere - the aroma of Arab coffee, an artist, a fortune-teller, Arab foods, Arab actors, tips on how to identify an Arab (the play features Arab and Jewish actors) and a quick lesson in spoken Arabic. The second part invites the audience to share the troubled dream of Haled Abu Ali, one of the actors, who is married to Fatima but longs for Galit, an Israeli soldier.

"Saing Clara" Big Winner at 1996 Israel Film Academy Awards

Garnering six major awards, Ori Sivan and Ari Fulman's "Saint Clara" (Clara hakdosha) was the toast of this year's Israel Film Academy Awards and, as winner of the Best Picture award, it will be Israel's submission for nomination to the foreign film category at the American "Oscars." The 14-year old star of the film, Lucy Dubinchek, received the Best Actress award for her portrayal of the title character. The film's other awards included best supporting actor (Yigal Naor), best editing, best soundtrack (Barry Saharof) and best directors.

Arthur Hiller, film director ("Love Story") and president of the American Film Academy, was the ceremony's guest of honor. He bestowed the Best Screenplay award on Igal Bursztyn for "Everlasting Joy" (Osher lelo gvul). Rafi Bukai's "Marco Polo: The Missing Chapter" was honored with four awards: sound, cinematography, costumes and art direction. Amos Lavie received the Best Actor award for his role in Moshe Mizrahi's "Women" (Nashim) and the Best Supporting Actress award went to Dana Raz for her part in Orna and Yochanan Raviv's comedy "Dogs are Color Blind" (Clavim lo novhim b'yarok). "Beit Shean: A War Story" won the Best Documentary award.

CULTURE BRIEFS

Young Israeli Debating Team Places Sixth in World Championships

In August, Israel sent a delegation of four students aged 15-16 to the World Schools Debating Championships in Australia. The team succeeded in reaching the quarter-finals where they lost, after a close contest, to the team from Pakistan. This was the first international competition in which Israel faced a Moslem country with whom it has no diplomatic relations. In the final ranking, Israel placed sixth out of 16 countries.

Israel will host this event in 1998 - the 50th anniversary of the state. The delegation to Australia was funded in part by the Division of Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Sepphoris (Tzippori in Hebrew), near Nazareth, was the administrative center of the Galilee from the first century BCE and the seat of the Sanhedrin. It later became a thriving provincial capital in Roman Palestine. This ancient center of Jewish scholarship and culture left behind an incredibly well-preserved testament to its former glory. "Sepphoris in Galilee: Crosscurrents of Culture," an exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art (November 17-July 6, 1997) features a selection of the treasures unearthed by recent archeological excavations. In putting together the exhibit, curators Rebecca Martin Nagy of the North Carolina Museum of Art and Eric Meyers of Duke University worked with site archeologists and the Israel Antiquities Authority. Part of the Israel/North Carolina Cultural Exchange being celebrated across the state, the exhibition includes sculptures, architectural fragments, mosaics, jewelry, coins, ritual objects and ceramic and glass vessels from the city once described by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus as "the ornament of all Galilee." Bringing Sepphoris into the 21st century, the exhibit also includes a video presentation and interactive computer programs about the city and its treasures.

From Raleigh, the exhibit is scheduled to travel to additional venues in the US and Europe. The Israel/North Carolina Cultural Exchange is a special project organized by the State of North Carolina, Department of Cultural Resources and the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Division of Cultural and Scientific Affairs (PANIM Sept/Oct1995).