Designs on Jerusalem

The seventh annual Jerusalem Design Week takes a chronological and thematic view of life with the forthcoming program, which will run from its base in Talbiyeh June 7 to 14.

By BARRY DAVIS
sraeli designer Luka Or’s works address the interface between the manmade and the natural, often with a tongue-in-cheek perspective (photo credit: STUDIO DAN LEV)
sraeli designer Luka Or’s works address the interface between the manmade and the natural, often with a tongue-in-cheek perspective
(photo credit: STUDIO DAN LEV)
After you’ve been knocking about for a few years, you might come to the conclusion that, as the adage suggests, there’s nothing new under the sun.
Five-something decades ago, in fashion, miniskirts were all the rage, followed by hot pants, flares, maxis, you name it. Fast-forward 30 or 40 years, and anything goes in a postmodern age that has, seemingly, seen it all and done it all.
The same goes for all areas of design, although the materials change – certainly, with the likes of technology such as 3-D printing available – and the fusion of different, sometimes disparate, elements also ebbs and flows.
With that in mind, the seventh annual Jerusalem Design Week takes a chronological and thematic view of life with the forthcoming program, which will run from its base in Talbiyeh June 7 to 14.
This year’s event, which is supported by the Jerusalem Affairs Ministry, the Jerusalem Development Authority and the Jerusalem Foundation, goes by the name of Hashmura, or Conserve. All told, it takes in some 30 slots, with local and international exhibitions and projects that address the past from finite, topical aspects, relating to social, human, technological and cultural areas, and how design can wend its way through those fields.
The stretch of themes and how they are presented to the public are a little mind-boggling. Consider Michal Evyatar’s performance-installation, in the rear of the terrace area of Beit Hansen, which incorporates 15 tons of salt. Her work addresses preservation and restoration of food, whereby the mountain of salt acts along the lines of an archeological excavation, with performers quarrying food from it, before transferring the raw materials to a special workstation, where dishes are created, based on ancient technological know-how.
In a special collaboration between Jerusalem Design Week and the Israel Festival, the Magenta Workshop team will offer the public a new angle on table tennis, in the piazza in front of the Jerusalem Theater. Onlookers are invited to take a hands-on role in the interactive work, as the evolving creation walks a tightrope between the past and future.
All told, in excess of 100 designers, from here and around the world, will do their crafting thing during the week. The France-Israel Cultural Season is just kicking off, and a bunch of designers from both countries will participate in the main Design Week exhibition which, like last year, will be held at the old Bezeq building across the road from the Jerusalem Theater. The French side of the bilateral artistic venture will look at conservation and the environment through design and food, while the Israelis will offer an intriguing take on conserving the Bible using multimedia means.
Elsewhere on the Design Week agenda, you can find three up-and-coming Polish graphic designers using a special hand-held printer to create polychromic images on walls and in various spaces, while the Milano Design Film Festival will host a screening at Beit Hansen.
Casting their minds to the past, Design Week artistic director Anat Safran and chief curator Tal Erez have devoted a program slot to the centenary of the Pro-Jerusalem Society. The organization was established in 1918 and played a formative role in creating Jerusalem’s aesthetic identity. The benchmarks for staple local elements, such as Jerusalem stone facing on buildings and Armenian tiling for road signs, were laid down by the Pro-Jerusalem Society.
The retro section of the week’s program also includes a charming lineup of veteran Jerusalem craftsmen, such as a violin maker, a bookbinder, a broom manufacturing plant and an Armenian tile producer.
Entry to all events is free. More information can be obtained from the visitors center at Beit Hansen, or at jdw.co.il