Alternative perspectives

There is a plethora of arts events, such as Contact Point at the Israel Museum, with offerings across a wide range of creative disciplines.

By BARRY DAVIS
Museum 520 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Museum 520
(photo credit: Courtesy)
This year’s Jerusalem Season of Culture kicks off on Monday, and by August 20 Jerusalemites and people from all over the country will have had the opportunity to grab a piece of the action from across an expansive cultural and artistic spread.
According to Season of Culture artistic director Itay Mautner, the program feeds off the multifaceted nature of the locale.
“Jerusalem is a place that requires you to ask questions, to challenge ‘truths’ and to look reality straight in the eye in an effort to discover something new. For me, Jerusalem is an incredible source of inspiration, a place whose inherent polarity facilitates a deeper and fuller observation of life. I find myself constantly torn between feelings of love, optimism and humility in the face of this city’s splendor and beauty, and a contrary sense of pessimism, melancholy and desire to escape.
It is along this spectrum, from the sublime to the disturbing, that the Jerusalem Season of Culture seeks to offer alternative perspectives of the city, perspectives that never cease questioning,” he says.
There are, indeed, plenty of “perspectives” in store for us over the next month and a half. There is a plethora of arts events, such as Contact Point at the Israel Museum, with offerings across a wide range of creative disciplines. And the WE Festi-Conference for Creative Collectives slot will incorporate a disparate bunch of young artists who will join forces to imbue a specific venue with all manner of creative energies and output.
On the musical side, there are several intriguing items that tend towards the cozy side of the entertainment tracks, some of which also form part of the In House segment of the Season of Culture lineup. From July 2 to 4, members of the public can spend some time in the airy vaulted confines of the Ein Kerem home of ethnic musician Itai Bin-Nun. He is a wind instrument player and a member of the cross-genre band Andra La Moussia. The Itai and the Toys program offers an opportunity to get a close look at some of the weird and wonderful musical instruments Bin-Nun has collected from around the globe and the technological apparatus he uses to record his and the band’s music. The evening, which starts at 9:30, soon develops from a look-at-and-marvel event to a handson activity in which the host and the visitors join forces to produce a unique soundtrack.
A very different In House event will take place at the Museum of Natural History in the German Colony.
The program goes by the name of The Opposite of Alive and, like with Itai and the Toys, the public can take an active part in the proceedings. But there the similarity ends. The Opposite of Alive is something of a misnomer but, paradoxically, it also provides a good idea of what to expect.
The event takes place on July 3 and 4, in Hebrew and English, and it promises to be a singular experience.
It involves individual tours of the museum, which take place in the wonderful, slightly musty, old-world ambience of the historic premises and betwixt striking visual exhibits. The latter, says joint JSC artistic director Michael Vaknin, can be exciting and startling in equal measures, especially if one takes into account the fact that the visitors do the museum round solo, after nightfall, and with only a flashlight to show them the way through the darkened building.
The tours start at five-minute intervals, with reservations for specific departure times made by phone. Before entering the museum, each person is provided with a flashlight and an MP3 appliance with headphones. The latter provides the participant with commentary about the museum’s contents and an actress’s voice giving instructions regarding which direction to take. “You are physically alone, but you also feel the presence of the guide, even though there is actually no one with you,” says Vaknin. “When I did the trial run with the MP3, there were points when the actress tells you to look to the right, and I felt she was right there, on my left.”
But this is not just a garden-variety guided tour. The actress’s monologue is seasoned with plenty of humor and color, drama and emotive asides. The script feeds off the physical surroundings and is tailored to accommodate the participants’ possible responses.
“The recording will say something like ‘Go there,’ and it sort of anticipates that the person may hesitate or may need encouragement, so it will continue with something like ‘Go on, it’s okay.’ The idea was to make the script as enjoyable, exciting and personal as possible,” says Vaknin.
The name of the event implies an existential dichotomy.
“The museum is full of things that are dead,” he continues, “like stuffed animals, a brain in a jar and that sort of thing, but you are invited to live the place, to inject it with your own life forces, to experience it with all your senses. You see a stuffed tiger that looks so alive, but it’s not. You may at first do a double take, but you soon realize you are in no danger.”
Vaknin believes that The Opposite of Alive is a good antidote to the Internet.
“Kids know what a tiger looks like because all they have to do is type in the word ‘tiger’ in Google, and they get a picture of one. But at the museum, they will come face to face with the real thing – even if it is stuffed – and they will be able to appreciate the size and the dynamism of the animal,” he says.
Vaknin says the choice of venue imbues the event with some added value.
“The building was one of the first outside the Old City walls. The Turks used it, and the British too. There are all sorts of paraphernalia left behind by the British. You really get the sense of history there. When I saw the museum, I just knew we had to do something with it. I think The Opposite of Alive suits the place, and vice versa.”
To book a The Opposite of Alive tour, call 653-5850. For more information about the Jerusalem Season of Culture: www.jerusalemseason.com.