Israeli artists and musicians display their exit strategies

Choreographer Yasmeen Godder invited 50 people to imprint their bodies on cloth as a means to give human bodies their presence again.

By HAGAY HACOHEN
MUSICIAN ZEEV TENE and his band Nimas Li (‘I’ve Had It’) will rock from the rooftops of HaShoftim Street. (photo credit: MICHAL OLMERT NISHTEIN)
MUSICIAN ZEEV TENE and his band Nimas Li (‘I’ve Had It’) will rock from the rooftops of HaShoftim Street.
(photo credit: MICHAL OLMERT NISHTEIN)
The Tel Aviv Municipality and the Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts are launching “Exit Strategies,” a massive public art event this weekend intended to mark a shift back into post-coronavirus normalcy and to celebrate Shavuot. Curated by Dafna Kron, Merav Perez and Renana Raz, Exit Strategies will feature the works of 60 artists who will present 40 art projects in dozens of locations across the first Hebrew city.
Choreographer Yasmeen Godder invited 50 people to imprint their bodies on cloth as a means to give human bodies their presence again after 90 days of Zoom panels and online shopping.
Ensemble OPUS will honor the legacy of the late Moondog, the blind US street musician and poet Louis Hardin, who used to wear a Viking helmet and stand on 6th Avenue in NYC, by holding a nightly tour of music and city soundscapes in Yaakov Garden on Thursday and Saturday.
Rock musician Zeev Tene and his band Nimas Li (“I’ve Had It”) will rock from the rooftops of HaShoftim Street, hinting at the usage city residents made of the roofs during the outbreak and voicing their discontent.
Comic book artist Ilana Zeffren, author of the 2005 graphic history of the LGBT struggle in Israel Pink Story, will present works she drew on the pavements of Haim Warburg Street. Each work tells the story of an animal that became homeless because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Lior Orgad will place a tree which will be concealed during the day but glow during the night in Givat Herzl, as if “wishing for a future in which the city and the forest will exist in fantastic harmony.”
Shahar Kremer will present her graduation work at the School of Visual Arts, 28 Kisses I bought on Craigslist. Speaking with the online Art magazine Portfolio, Kremer explained she paid a dollar per one minute of kissing, and the work was meant to investigate her own feelings of social isolation in the city, which she claimed started before the coronavirus outbreak. The art video will be screened on the public screens of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.
In an ironic nod to the various forms of monitoring the public faced during the outbreak, from Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) monitoring the location of citizens to police enforcing the restrictions against swimming in the sea, The Unit to Photograph the Citizen will open on 71 Ben Yehuda Street. The public is invited to attend, in presentable clothes, and get their pictures taken as “there is a right, and duty, to be visible.”
Carmel Bar and Michal Avitar will address the issue of sustainability and food in the city by having a movable capsule of a fruit garden moving around south Tel Aviv, offering residents fresh and healthy fruits at a time many of them face tremendous insecurity over the loss of work due to the past three months in which many businesses were closed.
Street artist Dede Bandaid will hold a lottery in which people might win his works. Members of the public can head down to Herzl Street during the hours of the event and try their luck.
Tamar Nisim will create magical circles of spells on Sderot HaHaskala, to protect anyone interested from COVID-19. That might be an ironic nod to Jewish history and the social movement the street is named for, which sought to liberate the Jewish people from superstitions and backwards thinking.
For more details on the events and their exact hours and dates,  go to www.exitstrategies.info.


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