It wasn’t meant to be this way, what with its sixtieth birthday and all that. Sixty years made it the longest-running festival in Israel, and a celebration was called for. But no one would have guessed that an invisible virus would put the world of culture at a standstill. That was the reality last year when corona loomed over the world of artists across the board. Performers had nowhere to perform, singers had no one to sing to, dancers were starved of audiences, cinemas were closed, artists had no place to exhibit.
Eyal Sher, the director of the Israel Festival 2021, observes that “Last year, was the corona year. We were heavily restricted, so we showed most of the performances on Zoom. This year we are still limited, in particularly by not being able to bring artists from abroad, although we do have one.”
Ever inventive, the festival management used this unique situation to focus on local talent, of which there is no shortage. “We’re doing an all-Israeli line up, as we did last year. Last year we filmed everything and put it on zoom. This year we are not doing that. Within the limits set down by the Ministry of Health, we are able to fill auditoriums and without capsules. So we are prepared to run the festival as normally as possible.”
Outgoing Artistic Director Itzik Giuli adds: “The new questions arising from this period in time opened many doors and possibilities for artists in all creative mediums. This year the festival poses the question – what does it mean to ‘host’ a performance in this day and age? How can partnerships be made with the public, ones that strengthen and deepen the connection between art and our communities, at a time when social distancing is an essential requirement? How can artistic practice create spaces for the experimentation with experiences based on creative ‘metabolism’ between artists and the public? And can art possibly be the one to generate reality?”
The festival organizers have attempted to come up with creative ways of using art and artists to connect with their audiences. It has been organized around six events, each with its own character.
“Inspiring Connections” (kishrei haruach) has a whole range of local artists from different media who were asked to present short works of 10 minutes each that have been influenced from a different branch of the arts. The result will be a work from a different medium to their own. They can relate to another singer, or to a stage play, or to a dance and so on. This will be spread over four evenings. On each evening there will be 10 performances – two with music, two with dance, two which are visual, two with video, and two theatrical. They will all appear on one stage, each one taking over as the other finishes. Altogether it will highlight the broad spectrum of Israeli arts, interacting with each other and inspired by iconic Israeli works. Some 80 artists will participate.
Another performance harks back to an earlier era. “The Golden Calf” is based on a popular disc made 30 years ago by Ehud Banai. It says much for the work that it has survived. Here will be a new production, using the singers David Saharoff, Corinne Elal, Eran Tsur. Efrat ben Tzur and Kfir Ben Laish all interpreting the original music in their own way. The special guest will, perhaps inevitably, be Ehud Banai, who still charms audiences both in Israel and abroad with his combination of Israeliness (he is part of a well-known family of entertainers) and, latterly, his return to Jewish tradition.
In “Routine 2.0” performers have been in situ with institutions, including the Jewish Institute for the Blind, the Rami Levi supermarket in Talpiot, the Experimental High School, a center for youth who have left Orthodoxy and so forth. Here the artists brought the tools of their craft to the actual situation and worked for a month and a half in that institutional setting to create something that shows how art can make people come out of their institutional life, with a new perspective. The works that will be shown are results of these encounters.
“Home-Spirit-Hospitality” is another set of encounters exploiting the local scene, this time even more intimately. It is an invitation to enter one of seven houses where the audience enters into the “spirit” of the occupants. Here the emphasis is on the people of the house. One woman artist, for example, has a family house in Mea She’arim. The house no longer functions as a bakery, but all the tools of their business are in place. The family live upstairs and the remains of the bakery are below. How she has turned this into a space for her artistic expression is the essence of the encounter with the audience. Overall this section is an attempt to draw people into meeting with others. It takes them to all different parts of the city, and meeting with all different types of people that they would not normally meet.
Another place to be visited is named after the late, internationally-known poet, Yehuda Amichai. This section will be led by the poet’s daughter who will be explaining about the district which has been designated for the poet. All of these experiences will be wonderful in showing people different aspects of the city. Because of the limitations of spaces, Sher reckons that between 30 to 50 people will be able to enter these places at one time.
“Waiting for Nissim” is based on a children’s book written by Etgar Keret and Shira Gefen. Now it has been turned into a performance by the East and West Orchestra conducted by maestro Tom Cohen, whose aim in all his many and diverse works is to bring together musical traditions from different cultures and show how they can work together. Although the work is based on a children’s story the actual production is definitely for adults. Again, it is a work inspired by another work in a different area of the arts.
A series of classical concerts will takes place out in Ein Kerem. The family of musicians who do this have been organizing and performing for more that 40 years. This year they are going to present works that were performed in the first years of the festival.
The one performance that comes from abroad is called “Macho Man” from Spain, produced by Alex Rigola. This a theatrical installation which focuses on the reality of violence towards women, and the conditions that allow it to go on. This is, of course, an international concern in Israel as well as in many other countries, so it is timely and relevant. It shows six women in various rooms, each of them having undergone some form of sexual molestation. Each scene looks at how their experience is shown in the media, in schools, and so on. It will be staged at the Jerusalem YMCA over a two-week period and take an hour to perform. Although the concept will be original, the work will be given an Israeli makeover to make it more appropriate to the Israeli context.
There is an underlying theme in much of the Festival, focusing on the relationship between art and the community. Eyal Sher observes: “This is a question that we have had to address throughout this last year of corona. How have they affected each other? What is the relevance of art, the meaning of culture? How does one research these questions? How can culture, be more open and dynamic? These are fundamental questions which we ask ourselves all the time, but particularly in this post-corona year, and that is the underlying theme in this year’s festival.”
The Israel Festival runs from June 3-19. Tickets can be ordered via its website, www.israel-festival.org/en/.