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The caravan (RV) that was converted into a mobile studio that includes solar powered electricity and full multimedia equipment. The mobile studio enables full-time interventions in diverse spheres – urban and open spaces, which will be transmitted in real time. The journey, meetings, events and everything that will happen during these nine days will be streamed through Internet video twenty four seven via this website set up for the project
On the first day of Av (the evening of July 11th) artists Guy Briller and Ronen Eidelman will leave for a nine day journey throughout historic Eretz Yisrael-Palestina (land of Israel Palestine), travelling in the footsteps of past destructions and in fear of (god forbid) the destructions that could come.
The journey will take place via a caravan (RV) that was converted into a mobile studio that includes solar powered electricity and full multimedia equipment. The mobile studio enables fulltime interventions in diverse spheres – urban and open spaces, which will be transmitted in real time. The journey, meetings, events and everything that will happen during the nine days of the journey will be streamed through internet video twenty four seven via the website set up for the project.
“Nine Days in Av” is a journey that takes place in the current Israeli Palestinian situation.
“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem… An ox knows his owner and a donkey his master’s crib; Israel does not know, my people does not consider… Your ministers are rebellious and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes and runs after payments; the orphan they do not judge, and the quarrel of the widow does not come to them…” Isaiah, chapter 1, from the Haftara reading from the Sabbath before 9th of Av.
Throughout the journey Briller and Eidelman will meet talk and listen to the different people who live between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. At these meetings, they will explore the different concepts and relevance to the past tragedies; causes and consequences.
Jewish tradition relates to the period of the journey The Nine Days” the first nine days of the Jewish month of Av, as a time of mourning and reduction of joy. The period culminates in Tisha B’Av (9th day of Av) which commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem and many other tragedies that came upon the Jewish people. According to tradition the Temple was destroyed because of Sinat Chinam - Baseless Hatred. During the journey the artists wish to bypass the hatred and replace it with Ahavat Chinam – Baseless Love.
During the journey Briller and Eidelman will hold prearranged meetings with individuals with unique voices that are barley heard through the media racket and are active in their various communities: political activist, neighborhood organizers, union members, artists, religious leaders, poets, philosophers, refugees and unrecognized citizens, Arabs and Jews. These meetings will happen alongside unplanned meetings with people who live or who roam the region and are also concerned with the future of this land.
The planned route will start in Jerusalem; will go west to Tel Aviv, south via Holon, Bat-Yam, and Ashdod to Bersheba and the Bedouin Diaspora, north to South Mount Hebron, Hebron and Gush Etzion, continuing through Palestinian territories (Area C). From there it will the route will continue through the Jordan Valley towards the Galilee visiting Maghar, Nazareth and Kilil. Swinging south via the Mediterranean shore, to Binyamina an Modi’in and Bilin and then back to Jerusalem for Ninth of Av eve.
The journey is like a sort of “big brother” on wheels that will include in addition to the streaming live video, text updates (twitter) photos, and video clips edited on the road. The whereabouts of the caravan can also be followed via GPS system. However, in contrast to the “big brother” television show, Eidelman and Briller will be in movement, will meet fascinating people, have sincere conversation and will create interesting, real and honest content about our life here in this land.
A blog with texts, pictures and videos from a personal point of view of the artisst and where anyone can comment and respond to the project will be created.
The journey will take place from the evening from July 11th -20th
Around the city of Lublin Poland, on empty buildings as well as inhabited ones, in the alleys of the old city and on streets of the newer parts, I posted photos of different kinds of Jew people who lived on these streets in these houses of the center of Lublin in between in the nineteen twenties till 1941.
In a modest gesture, I return the people in the photos to the place they were taken.
The photos show all kind of Jews. Young, old, modern, religious, political activist, Bundist, Zionist, nihilists, bourgeois, Hasidic, yeshiva student, communist, who knows? In some photos the identity is clearly visible, while in others it’s not so clear.
Near the photos appear different questions in polish:
Czy zawsze czu?e? si? inny od swoich przyjació?? / Have you always felt different from your friends?
Czy w twojej rodzinie jest wielka tajemnica? / Does your family hide a great mystery/secret?
Czy twoja babcia mamrocze w obcym j?zyku przez sen? / Does your grandmother mumble in her sleep in a foreign tongue?
Jakim ?ydem jeste?? What kind of Jew are you?
to see captions with explanation of the source of image and translation make flickr full screen (4 arrows on bottom right) and then click on picture
The project was made as part of the Open City Festival – Festival of art in public spaces. Lublin, Poland. curator: Krzysztof Zwirblis / Studio Gallery
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Yonathan Amir and I announced last week that we are leaving our positions as editors of Maarav. We are starting a new independent media project in the field of Art and culture.
Maarav was a great project that we created with love and devotion and we cherish the opportunity we had to be the editors for so long. However we feel that Maarav’s organizational and financial structure prevented us from creating and developing Maarav in the way that we believed.
The New Project: In still in very early stages, but what we can say that we are creating a platform that will integrate art, culture and politics and will continue to fill the role that we took upon ourselves when we made Maarav. Â We will build an excellent of team in the field of writing, art and culture which will create a magazine that will provide great writing and art, lead and challenge the discourse, and maybe even be financial viable.
In February we will launch our new site called EREV RAV, and we are also planning in a later stage to come out with a monthly printed magazine. Further notices and the link to the new site will be posted here soon. Ideas, suggestions and comments are welcome.
Medinat Weimar is opening a two temporary bureaus in Stockholm, Sweden and Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
If you are in the area you are very welcome to visit (I will be in Stockholm until Sunday, October 25th). Please, notify and forward announcement friends and people that you think will find interest and that live in the area.
Medinat Weimar
The Movement for a Jewish State in Thuringia
Stockholm, Sweden: Medinat Weimar is opening a bureau at the Tegen2 gallery in Stockholm, and will establish a temporary Swedish headquarters. The purpose of the office is to educate the Swedish public about the movement and to encourage them to support the idea. We believe that the Kingdom of Sweden – The current president of the European Union, with its highly developed economy and great tradition of democracy can play a role in forwarding the vision of the movement and can help persuade the European community as well as their German neighbors in the vitality of the idea. In edition in Sweden and in the city of Stockholm live large Palestine and Lebanon communities that we believe can connect and find hope in the ideas of Medinat Weimar.
Tegen 2. Bjurholmsg. 9b, T-bana Skanstull, 070-7161923, 070-2855777, info@tegen2.se, www.tegen2.se
23.10.09-8.11.09, opening: 23 October - 17 – 20, 19.00 press conference and dicussion.
***
Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Medinat Weimar is opening a bureau at the ‘Can You Speak Of This? Yes, I Can.’ Exhibition that opens in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and will establish a temporary headquarters. The purpose of the office is to educate the local public about the movement and to encourage them to support the idea. We believe that the Bosnia and Herzegovina – with its history of nationalism and ethnic violence, and its complicated relationship to the European Union, with its complex multi religious traditions can play a role in forwarding the vision of the movement and can help persuade the European people in the vitality of the idea. We believe that the people of the region can connect to our vision and find hope in the ideas of Medinat Weimar.
Where Everything Is Yet to Happen. 1st chapter: “Can you speak of this? -Yes, I can”. SPAPORT BIENNIAL 2009/2010Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Locations: Terzic Gallery | Salon of the Museum of Contemporary art | Banja Luka Fortress | Public space http://www.delve.hr, http://www.protok.org
October 20 – November 15, 2009. Opening: Banja Luka Fortress, October 20, 2009, 8 pm
OneState Embassy invited me to Vienna for two events as secretary Medinat Weimar!
1.
Post Conceptual Art Practices [Class], Prof. Dr. Marina Gržinić, Semperdepot, 1st floor, M1, Lehárgasse 8, 1060 Vienna
Thursday, 15. 10. 2009 – M1, Semperdepot lecture in English – open to general public
18:30 Ronen Eidelman (Tel Aviv-Jaffa): Medinat Weimar
Medinat Weimar is an art project that created a movement to promote the idea of the Jewish state in Thuringia, Germany, with the city of Weimar as its capital. The movements goal is to convince the German people to call the Jews (and anyone else who wants to be one) to gather in Thuringia, a post-industrial area emptying more every year, and found there another Jewish state. One that would not only satisfy the need for a secure Jewish home, appease the Palestinian Israeli conflict, help the German with coming to terms with the past, but would also save Thuringia from its own bleak future. In the lecture Eidelman, the Movements’ secretary, will present the Movement, explain the political and artistic context it was born in, as well as show other art projects he has created in the past that are related to the movement.
Ronen Eidelman is an artist, writer and activist engaged with linking art, culture and grassroots politics. Participated in many exhibitions and festivals, as well as creating independent projects in the public sphere. Born in New York City, grew up in Jerusalem and based in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel, Co-founder and editor of “Ma’arav” (www.maarav.org.il) leading online art and culture magazine from Israel. Graduate of the MFA program for “Public Art and New Artistic Strategies’ at Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany, and for more than ten years active in anti-occupation and anti-capitalist activists groups. Ronen likes hats and enjoys wearing many kinds. http://medinatweimar.org/,http://ronen.dvarim.com/
The lecture is organized by Eduard Freudmann and OneState Embassy in Vienna (Ambassadors Tal Adler & Osama Zatar will be present at the lecture – www.onestate-embassy.net).
The lecture is part of the seminar “Platform History Politics” (http://tinyurl.com/ydptw3p)
2.
Come and have denKarium-breakfast with the Israeli artist Ronen Eidelman in the “OneState Embassy” in Vienna:
“How to use art as a safe place for utopian ideas”? Saturday, 17. Oct. 10.30, at the “OneState Embassy”, Sieveringerstr. 167, 1190 Vienna.
We will offer a nice oriental brunch, children are also wellcome, the embassy has a wide garden and toys! Ronen will present his project “Medinat Weimar” and discuss the possibilities of political art actions.
A rites-event in cooperation with OneState embassy (Tal Adler & Osama Zatar)
Sep 012009
Project made for The Prozna Project 2009. Prozna Street is the only street in Warsaw which survived the destruction of the ghetto.
In Jewish tradition upon first moving in to a new house, it is customary to leave a certain space on the wall free of decoration and furnishing as a remembrance of the destruction of the Temple (zecher lachurban). In many Jewish religious homes one can see a small square, usually around the size of a few bricks (+-45cm), with no plaster, paint or finishing – the material of the wall exposed. Similar to the tradition of breaking a glass in wedding, the costume reminds us that no happiness can be perfect and we should remember the churban (the destruction and in Yiddish also the word used for the Holocaust) also in times of celebration.
The building in Prozna st. is all a zecher lachurban, the bricks are exposed and there is no plaster or paint, a contrast to the new big fancy building in center Warsaw. These marking in the corners of the building are a reverse to the old costume – a remembrance for the living - Zecher Lahaim – A symbolic gesture of remembrance for life, for those who lived, for the homes and families who lived there and for those who are still living.
Aug 272009
I’m participating in a great project in Warsaw, for those who cant make it i will post pictures and a description next week.
The opening is on Sunday, 30th August 2009, at 5.30 pm, Prozna Street 7/9. The exhibition is open from 31st August 2009 to 6th August 2009. Hours: 2 pm — 8 pm
Prozna Street is the only street in Warsaw which survived the destruction of the ghetto. Deserted, ruined, deprived of any inhabitants is still the evidence of war crimes and post-war indifference. The exhibition, which takes place in Prozna Street for the fifth time, aims to show how the modern language of art refers to Polish-Jewish history, common memory issue, intolerance and xenophobia, anti-Semitism as well as directly history and the condition of the place, where it is held.
The Prozna Project 2009 exhibition is probably the last one that will be organized in this place. There is a project of rebuilding of the building in Prozna Street pending to be realized. It is going to be a modernized version of the interior of the present building. Other conversions are likely to follow this one. In a few years it will be a completely different street.
The following artists were invited to participate in the Prozna Project: Hubert Czerepok, Inga Fonar Cocos, Oskar Dawicki, Daniela Deutelbaum, Wojciek Doroszuk, Ronen Eidelman, Zuzanna Janin, Katarzyna Krakowiak, Krystyna Piotrowska, Katarzyna Podgórska-Glonti, Jan Rusiński, Stanisław Wójcik, Ewa Stawecka, Grzegorz Sztwiertnia, Waldemar Tatarczuk, Wojciech Wilczyk.
Curator: Krystyna Piotrowska
Photos of works from previous editions are available at the website: www.projektprozna.pl
Jul 152009
A street art action on public historic perception, Budapest, Hungary, June 2009
Commemorative plaques, a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, or other material, are attached to the walls of many buildings are very common in Budapest. The plaques, bearing text in memory of an important figure that lived in the building (or event that happened there), are written in Hungarian and usually give you a condensed of the important person, the years they lived, and what they are famous for.
Visiting Budapest I was fascinated by these plaques – the amount, the different designs but mostly wondering as a non Hungarian speaker who are these people, what did they do to deserve a plaque and who decides who gets one. I asked myself if these people who are commemorated are really important to the people who live near and in the buildings where they are attached. In addition, I wanted to learn more about the choices made in Hungarian culture about who is considered important.
The week before the opening of CONTROL an Exhibition at 2B Gallery in Budapest that I participated in, Orsolya Fenyresi, who was my assistant and translator, and I, explored the different plaques on Ráday Street (the street of the gallery) and it surroundings. We interviewed the people living in the buildings and passersby and asked them and who ever was willing to talk to us – if they heard about the people named on the plaques, and if they did – how they felt about them. At the end we googled the names to check the stories we gathered and find more information.
With the information gathered, I wrote new texts, printed them with a basic design on marbled paper and hung my newly produced “street story†plaques witch I hung next to the original ones.
photos by Dazz
The texts of the “new plaque”s: Continue reading »
