The program features seven new works by the New Department artists: Daniel Shanni, omri ariav, Itamar Shlomo Cohen, Leila Rose Bari, Tzipi Nir, Brit Einstein and Noam Sandel.
The New Department is a continuing education program of The School of Visual Theater, directed by Guy Gutman:
“This is the first year of the New Department. A fundamental year of learning whilst moving, adjusting, examining, and listening. In the image of the eight artists who took part in it – the department is pulling towards many directions, and from various points of departure. It encounters the participants at a certain point in time (and life), specific to each one, from which they leap to a different action, a different calling. Meanwhile, the department – as its name suggests – is a place, a space, where we have been together, with great joy and curiosity. A place of active research – or rather, investigation – a place of detection. We have ultimately investigated the conditions and means to move, develop, improve, evolve. Significant questions which we treated with the proper playfulness they deserve. All these are long-distance callings. And yet, there is beauty and significance to endings – the moment in which one sets something down, taking a chance on it, and the work obtains a life of its own. That is a call for celebration. Thank you”.
Light Green Gold \ Live Installation by Noam Sandel
Noam Sandel, an artist and graduate of the School of Visual Theatre in Jerusalem, sketches on stage a visual maneuver, woven into a performance. Noam picks images borrowed from Art History, delicately handling them so they reflect the family unit. Since 2016 Noam has been a guest artist in Societas Raffaello Sanzio, artistically directed by Claudia and Romeo Castellucci. Noam teaches contemporary theater, and formerly served as assistant director and member of 209 Ensemble, artistically directed by Tamar Raban. Her works were exhibited on both international and local stages.
“I am interested in the transformation of matter over time. I am interested in space, color, shape. I am interested in when we are Liri and Noam, my sister and I, and when are we every-woman. I create a fantastical, fictitious atmosphere of a family history”.
In participation of: Liri Sandel and Ofer Berman / Artistic accompaniment: Hila Cohen-Schneiderman and Guy Gutman / Special thanks to Tomer Baruch, Design Tech Technion, Michael and Yona.
Photo: Amit Mann
Heavy \ Installation, Durational Performance by Brit Einstein
Brit Einstein is an installation artist and painter, graduate of The School of Visual Theater. Her works are affected by observing the cyclicality of nature, its biodegradability and creativity. Brit explores the edges and range of matter, and its interaction with space.
“My actions reside in emotion, stemming from within. I am interested in the world of matter: a world of phenomena in which there is dissolution, creation, and variability. I am interested in power, mass, their relationship, and reaction to one another. I observe nature, its cyclicality, the intimate relations between two edges: renewal and decay. I examine how force affects force. Which is the locus holding the construction, which, in its absence, would collapse. How does the inner world receive a material shape, and in turn, an external world is created in which I can act, modify and evolve, deconstruct and reassemble. I choose to work with materials which allow me to create movement and change, but do not completely adhere to me, limiting my control, forcing me to make way for their demands.”
Dancers, creators, and partners: Yael Igra, Shahar Fucs Bar, Noam Gazit, Yael Kalif / Artistic guidance: Hila Cohen-Schneiderman / Special thanks to: Shaked Haran, Naama Bertini Shavit, Efrat Katz, Roni Golan, Tohar Kleiner, Yotam Einstein.
The House Party \ A Short Animation Feature by Daniel Shanni
Daniel Shanni is a director, comedian and creator, graduate of Sam Spiegel Film School.
“Billabong and his loyal dog arrive at a party in southern Tel-Aviv. When conversation topics are exhausted and the embarrassment becomes unbearable, a board game is brought out, arousing dormant violence.
I am interested in humorously discussing the desperation encompassing this period, the gloom which the future withholds, belligerence set against gentleness and the city of Tel-Aviv, which had fallen from its grace, becoming an aggressive construction site. Will it ever return to us?”
Guidance: Guy Gutman and Nava Frenkel.
substrata \ Performance by omri ariav
omri ariav is a director, maker and writer, interested in rituals, the everyday, and the obvious. Attracted to fine lines and oppositions. Works with the senses to distinguish between the named Person and the human animal as a flux of raw sensation.
“I am interested in the gaze, in forgetfulness, and in the discrepancy between my name and the dense feeling of being-me. By deconstructing basic human practices, I search for overlaps between together and alone.”
Performed by: Sharon Valevski, Eilon Ferber, Itamar Baruch, Brit Einstein / Dramaturgy: Eilon Ferber / Advise and support: Gili Rahav / Artistic guidance: Nava Frenkel / Projection counselor: Yosef Mashiach / Special thanks to Guy Gutman, Gidon Levi, Rei Cagan, Yuval Schneider, Omer Shach, Menahem Haike, Yaara Erlich
Ghosting / Internal Objects – A Fictional Documentary Performance by Leila Rose Bari
Leila Rose Bari, an interdisciplinary artist and producer, living and working in Tel-Aviv and Berlin. Engaged in performance, sculpture and sound installations, painting, experimental cinema, and writing. Leila works with autobiographical materials as a travel journal, alongside the use of symbols and stories carrying a cultural and historical weight. She merges them, exfoliates them, turning them into an eclectic and abstract testimony of an existential experience: an anonymous archeology of the future.
“I have studied my mother’s new body – its left side paralyzed as a result of a stroke – tracing it by limiting my own body. My mother’s home has remained in my possession, a borderline case of temporary inheritance. As a stranger within it due to her absence, I turned to constructing an alternative domestic space: I copied and replicated parts of the house, uprooted fragments, and built a sculpture garden from appropriated objects. I defined the stage as a living space, as an experimental home: a personal-public-survival-clinical-cosmic-festive space. I invited a group of friends to come and, with me, be the organism of the artificial habitat. Together we created a semi-tribal, esoteric society, encrypted with biographical archetypes, in an attempt to unite the inanimate and the living. The performance is the laboratory of this place.”
Featuring: Yonatan Geron, Hagit Unmani Rubinstein, Lilla Roma Weisselberg, Ofek Saada, Kim Kertesz, Zero Cent / Dramaturgy: Amit Jacobi / Lighting design: Yoel Peled and Yonatan Geron / Costumes: Collaboration with Mai Aboucaya / Sound Design: Collaboration with Ohad Fishof / Sound editing: Lee Nevo / Assistant producer: Leora Piltzer / Artistic guidance: Hila Cohen-Schneiderman, Menahem Goldberg.
Tat;Ray
A Performance Piece Combining Theater, Dance, Sound, and Video, by Tzipi Nir
Tzipi Nir is an interdisciplinary artist, choreographer and dancer, living in Moshav Gamzo, married,ֿ and a mother to four children. As founder and current coordinator of the religious dance department in the city of Modi’in, Tzipi accompanies creative processes for stage and prepares students for their finals in dance and composition. Winner of the Minister of Education Award for creators operating within Jewish Culture fields, named after the late Ori Orbach. She seeks to understand the mechanism behind the scenes, and whether she is allowed to phrase absolute truths, to imagine and create alternative spaces that offer greater compassion and containment.
“I am interested in people, in women, in perspectives, in exterior and interior. I am interested in the encouragers and the suppressors, the inaugurators and leaders, the dragged, the tag-alongs, the peepers, the introverts, those who suggest and then leave. I am interested in the mechanism, the moment in which the split occurs, the history of discrepancy. I am interested in what lingers beneath the surface, and whether the governing rules are fabricated or real. Is there an absolute truth or just an injured narrative. Through extreme characters and untwined spaces, I am searching for a tribe, perhaps there will be room there.”
Featuring: Naomi Yahel, Lilach Sagir, Galya Avidar, Reyan Chaaban, Chani Rosental, Danielle Lamensdorf and Tzipi Nir / Assistant producers: Chani Rosental and Danielle Lamensdorf / Video editing: Danielle Lamensdorf / Costume storeroom: Shany Brosh / Artistic guidance: Tal Yahas and Guy Gutman / Special thanks to Adi Kahana, Maya Levi, Hila Cohen-Schneiderman, Itzik Giuli, Talia Keinen, my fellow participants of the New Department program, the school’s technical team: Martin, Ihab, Gideon and Debora, my family.
Practice \ A Solo Performance by Itamar Shlomo Cohen
Itamar Shlomo Cohen is a musician, creator and performer born in Pisgat Ze’ev, Jerusalem, and an honor graduate of Musrara’s School of Art new-music department. In every level on which I operate, I aspire to engage in Israeli pop culture, hip-hop culture and aesthetics and Middle Eastern and North-African musical spaces. I devote special attention to merging these cultures, believing in a shared energy amongst post-colonial societies and their cultural representations.
“In 2002, when I was in second grade, I stood before an audience for the first time, in a play celebrating Tu BiShvat. As the play began, I burst into an uncontrollable laughter before a room filled with adults – parents of my fellow classmates – who looked at me quietly, waiting for me to start the artistic program.
In 2022, I will take the stage and present “Practice” – A 30-minute solo performance, combining music, movement, and words.
I ask to stand and speak the thoughts and feelings I hold regarding a lost childhood, disappointment, and unstable, impermanent grounds. I ask to tell the audience and myself about air, about light and its absence.”
Writing, featuring, musical production and sound design: Itamar Shlomo Cohen / The song “Damyeni” (‘imagine’) originally performed by: Tamir Gal, music and lyrics: Martin Gal / Lighting design: Yosef Mashiach / Sound: Ron Sheskin / Artistic guidance: Guy Gutman, Nava Frenkel / Special thanks to Anne and Yossi Cohen, Shani Esther Cohan Amuev, Haim Cohen, Elad Moshe, School of Visual Theater, Sara Siegel, Nurit Dreamer.
Photo: Amit Mann