Brother less big now

October 6, 2008 - 8:23 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, General, History and Culture, Politics 

Big Brother from 1984 and not from IsraelIsraeli culture is one of the nation’s most important exports in terms of public relations, and the Foreign Ministry has been active in sponsoring international tours for Israel’s most exciting performers or some time.

ISRAEL21c has been reporting on the phenomenon for several years now:

“We have found that bringing Israeli musicians to the United States is an exciting and effective way of engaging students, said Aviva Raz Schechter, Minister-Counselor at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC.

“It provides us with the opportunity to highlight Israel’s cultural achievements and to show that Israel is more than just a conflict. Many American students are tired of debating about the Arab-Israeli conflict; music serves as a great way of connecting Jewish and non-Jewish young people with the country. We are particularly excited to be hosting Idan Raichel, who is not only a wonderful performer but also an example of the diverse society of which Israel is so proud,” Schechter told ISRAEL21c.

Rapper Shaanan Streett of Hadag Nachash has even publicly expressed dismay at the warmth with which his act has been received by local bureaucrats, despite the ensemble’s well-known proclivity for lyrics which are often critical of the homeland. This, despite the Foreign Ministry’s insistence that sponsored artists sign agreements nicknamed “Big Brother Contracts,” dictating that if they talk trash about Israel while on tour, they obligate themselves to pay the government back.

Regardless, Hadag Nachash and many other edgy acts have participated in performance and speaking tours to North America and Europe with governmental backing, spreading good Israeli cheer to the Diaspora, where identification with sabra culture can go a long way. And now, tours like these are getting easier to set up, with the Foreign Ministry having announced recently that the Big Brother Contracts are, like the real 1984, history. It’s good timing, coming just months after the government was criticized for unveiling new plans to keep an extremely close watch on its populace.

Quoting from a story in the Hebrew Yediot Acharonot tabloid, the McClatchy newspaper group’s Checkpoint Jerusalem blog recently celebrated the move, which was apparently orchestrated by authors A.B. Yehoshua and Meir Shiloh and championed by Arye Mekel, deputy director of the ministry’s Cultural and Scientific Affairs Department.

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Arad the artist

September 24, 2008 - 10:11 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Art, General 

Don’t know about you, but when I’m trolling the streets of Tel Aviv, particularly along Dizengoff and Ben Yehuda (although not my favorite Tel Aviv neighborhoods), I don’t necessarily stop into any of the art galleries to see what’s on offer. It’s less about a lack of interest, and rather a keener interest in the other offerings along the boulevard.

That said, when I do step inside, there’s always something to check out, to view, to ponder. And today I had the opportunity, along with a group of American curators visiting Israel, to visit the Rosenfeld Gallery on Dizengoff, which is currently showing the works of Boaz Arad, who was there to present his pieces.

Arad is an Israeli artist who works primarily in the video medium, and deals with the familiar and popular Israeli questions of our duties and responsibilities with regard to the history of the Jews, the Holocaust, genocide and mourning. He frequently does so with humor, pathos and a heavy dose of cynicism. And his range is diverse. He offers, on the one hand, “Gefilte Fish,” a mix of documentary and performance art, as he films his mother making gefilte fish and then lip-synchs his mother’s voice as she answers his questions. The results are disturbing, but funny.

hitler.jpgOn the flip side, his Hitler videos are funny, as he uses digital technology to play with Hitler’s mustache, letting it grow, flourish and snake around his head. He has also played with the Hitler images in other works, notably his Adolf Hitler rug, allowing people to ‘wipe their feet’ on Hitler. I also loved his video “Hebrew Lesson,” in which he splices together words and phrases from various Hitler speeches to create a sentence in Hebrew, “Shalom Yerushalayim, ani mitnatzel.” (“Hello Jerusalem, I apologize.”)

I didn’t have the opportunity to ask Arad what he intended with these works; it seems clear, that despite his Tel Aviv buzz haircut and black tee-shirt, that he’s as stuck and struck by the impact of Nazism and the Holocaust on Jewish lives as many of us are. Then again, why wouldn’t he be?

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