Foto Friday – Beyond Realistic Representation: Constantiner Photography Award

December 2, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, design, education, Foto Friday, General, History and Culture, News, Picture of the Week 

Two photographers were named winners of the 2011 Constantiner Photography Award for an Israeli Artist. Both Ilit Azoulay and Liat Elbling, writes curator Nili Goren, “represent a significant trend prevalent recently in Israeli photography, centering on a renewed discussion of seeing, remembering and documenting, through the use of processing, simulating and assembling—originating in direct photography but removed from it, thus creating paradoxical environments.”

Elbling’s work combines photography and computer digital processing. “I photograph raw material, then deconstruct and re-organize it on the computer,” she writes. “The process is comprised of several stages and operates in layers, while keeping the logic of the photographic order intact.

Untitled Photo by Liat Elbling

“The main themes in my work relate to photography as a representation of reality and to the relationship between photography and memory. I am fascinated by the manner in which photography is considered reliable testimony and used to mediate reality.”

(A) Part #50888970 Photo by Liat Elbling

“My work focuses on uncovering scenes and images that posses day-to-day familiarity but at the same time, it’s seems like they have been exaggerated or have lost the ability to function.”

Azoulay, who received her MFA from the Bezalel Art Academy last year, stated, “I start with an attempt to create a place and only then to document it in a photograph; to detach objects from their usual adjectives, to annul the common familiar meaning they hold and rearrange them into a different and coherent reality.”

A space for a man with a chair Photo by Ilit Azoulay

About Azoulay’s work, Goren writes: “Like an archaeological study that sorts and catalogues findings from the past, she collects remnants of the present and applies onto them a clear regularity of gaze and photographic conditions, and assembles a continuous pictorial sequence devoid of thematic meaning.”

Room #8, 2011 (detail) Photo by Ilit Azoulay

“The space achieved in the final photograph subverts the spatial logic of sensual vision, its photographic representation and their (the gaze’s as well as the photograph’s) interpretation through the human brain, i.e. with consciousness tools.”

Tunnel Photo by Ilit Azoulay

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art – Leon and Michaela Constantiner Photography Award for an Israeli Artist was founded in 1999. Award recipients include Pesi Girsch (1999); Dalia Amotz, Simcha Shirman, Ori Gersht (2000); Barry Frydlender, Hanna Sahar (2001); Lee Yanor, Galia Gur-Zeev (2002); Adi Nes (2003); Reli Avrahami (2004); Leora Laor, Igael Shemtov, Pavel Wolberg (2005); Roi Kuper (2006); Michal Chelbin (2007); Yanai Toister (2008); Naomi Leshem (2009). In addition to the Prize, the photographers’ works are entered into the Museum collection.

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‘Religious-friendly’ circus raises Israeli municipality’s ire

December 1, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, coexistence, Entertainment, General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, Religion 

It’s a given that Israeli society consists of factions – religious, Tel Avivi, mizrahim, people who wear sandals with socks. But one place we can always put our sectarianism aside is at the circus. Or so we thought.

Now it appears that the divisions within Israeli society between the observant and the secular are even filtering down to that grand institution of family entertainment. The circus has already undergone one revolution in the years since I was kid – you won’t find animals as the star attractions anymore, thanks to the efforts of the animal rights activists around the world.

But in an effort to appeal to the religious audience in Israel, the Medrano Circus from Italy has also been doing away with another endangered species – women. Half of the 24 scheduled shows over Hannukah in the city of Givat Shmuel were to feature only male performers, per an arrangement with the promoter who wanted to appeal to the religious community.

However, according to a report in Haaretz, when the Givat Shmuel Municipality heard about the decision, they refused to grant the circus the necessary permits required for the performances.

The first “religious-friendly” circus performances took place last year in Lod, under the title “Circus with a Skullcap,” and according to impresario Doron Etzioni, they were a huge success. Therefore, when he brought in Medrano this year, he and the circus agreed that a few performances would similarly be in this format. This time, however, he decided the venue would be Givat Shmuel, the last city in which Medrano was due to appear on its Israel tour.

Etzioni said it never entered his head that performances aimed at the religious public would spark opposition, and especially not in a city with many religious residents. But that is what happened when the first advertisements for the show appeared two weeks ago.

Should a promoter be allowed to cater to a particular audience, and should a municipality be allowed to act as lord master over that decision? Only the lady in the flying trapeze knows for sure – but she wasn’t invited to the show.

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