Step Up

Tuesday July 8, 22:00-17:00

Friday July 11, 16:00-10:00

“Step Up” is an invitation to ascend the stairs of the Art Cube Artists’ Studios in Talpiot, to pass through the blue doors and enter the very heart of the act of artistic creation – into the inner sanctum of the artist, where thought and emotion are transformed into an image or object – the studio.

The expression ‘a step up’ usually hints at progress, growth, and renewal within a process, but in the Israeli lexicon, it is also used to describe situations of escalation and intensification in the context of national security. This year, under the overarching theme of the Manofim Festival – Extreme Point – we seek to examine the current tension that exists between the aspiration to rise above and a reality that pulls downwards. At the top of the stairs, on the roof of the Art Cube Artists’ Studios, ‘Bustana’ will simultaneously be inaugurated – a rooftop space for live encounters, creativity, and meaning. In the encounter between these two peaks – the ‘Extreme Point’ below and ‘Bustana’ above – the ‘Step Up’ open studio events will take place, inviting one to experience, hear, and closely observe what Jerusalem’s artists are currently engaged with. The free wandering between the studios raises questions about the place where each and every one of them experiences a conceptual, conscious, or material step up, and invites one to ask whether there is a search for upliftment or rather a tendency to focus on the details and delve into the difficulties; to discuss the thin line between artistic creation born from hope and one that serves as escapism; and to ponder the question of what the next step in their personal-artistic process will be.

Artists: Or Ariely, Ella Cohen Vansover, Elkana Levi, Ariel Hacohen, David (Duchi) Cohen, Dana Gazit​, Hadas Duchan, Tal Simon, Yarden Colsey, Steinberg Yaron, ​Michal Harada, Miriam Munk, Marcelle Tehila Bitton, Matan Ben-Tolila, Neta Moses, Nadia Adina Rose, Sally Foreman, ​Shani Avivi