Manofim 2020

A filmed show-performance at the Biblical Zoo
Participants in the opening night were invited for a journey at the zoo. The journey included a filmed show/performance of an audio-visual piece, written especially for the zoo, and a conversation/tour with the artist Hila Amram, who built a special installation in one of the zoo’s magnificent rooms, which is usually closed to the public.

Zoos have been around in various forms since antiquity. From then until today they have been serving as a safe and civilized meeting point of humans and wild animals. In the past, their almost exclusive purpose was to entertain humans; however nowadays, they have come to encompass new goals: protecting endangered species, educating visitors on the importance of animal conservation, instilling nature and environmental protection values to future generations, and various zoological studies.
Zoos hold a set of opposing values, which houses in the same display site cultivation for conservation purposes, entertainment for financial survival, breeding endangered animals, education and more. This complexity, which can be seen as a microcosm of the human-nature relationship, is at the heart of Manofim Festival this year.

In the world outside zoos, we are witnessing complicated interactions between man and nature. After all, man is a living being who belongs to nature and does not exist outside it. However, it often seems that humans are trying to sever their close connection to this world, to suppress their animal instincts, and establish dominance over the whole of nature. This is evident in radical human actions that harm nature and change it for better and worse, according to man’s need. At the same time, nature’s effect on mankind is no less significant: On the one hand, it is rich in treasures that benefit man, and on the other hand, it showers mankind with disasters like deadly storms and volcanic eruptions, not to mention an invisible virus that undermines man’s seemingly stable world and demands his confinement in quarantine until it goes away. Recently, man’s attempts to control nature have been undermined, and the wild animals that started to roam inhabited areas introduced the question: Which of the animals is confined and which is watching?
Manofim 2020’s main event was held at the Biblical Zoo, nestled in a beautiful valley in southwest Jerusalem and stretching over hundreds of dunams. Throughout the evening it presented a streaming of contemporary art and a filmed show based on a poem by Yonatan Levi, written especially for the Zoo. The music was composed by Noam Inbar and performed by the fourth year students of the School of Visual Theatre.

Manofim curators and artistic directors: Rinat Edelstein and Lee He Shulov
Visual art: Hila Amram, Dana Levy
Filmed Show:
Text and direction: Yonatan Levi
Music: Noam Inbar
In collaboration and performed by the fourth year students of the School of Visual Theatre and the Zoo Choir

The Moment of Truth
The moment of truth is a decisive point or significant event that requires the individual to make a decision and put it and its consequences to the test. These days, it seems that the “classic” definitions of a moment of truth or a fateful decision can dissolve in the blink of an eye. The world is inundated by accounts that turn out to be Fake News, alternative facts, and fake pictures processed as images of reality, an unpredictable and confounding pandemic, urgent reports of a climate apocalypse waiting just around the corner, and allegations of panic and misinterpretation of scientific data. Such moments, moments of doubt as to the possibility of knowing the truth, are in themselves moments of truth that challenge the individual with decisions that could prove fateful.

The moment of truth can be expressed actively or passively; it can summon an opportunity for confession, or alternatively, for asserting a false story. It can be private and personal, collective, communal, national, and even global. It can expose an existing truth or establish a new truth, while any action and direction chosen may have a dramatic effect on the future. Consequently, artists, philosophers, and people everywhere have to act, think, and devise plans while experiencing utter mistrust of the perception of reality and its mediators on the one hand, and doubts and insecurity as to the future of human existence on the other hand.
The Jerusalem Art Conference, held for the 5th time this year, is a joint venture of the Jerusalem art institution Manofim and Erev Rav and Harama magazines. The conference wished to bring together the current prevailing discourse in art academies and higher education institutions and artists, curators, artistic directors, and art and culture professionals in Israel and worldwide.

Participants: Saron Paz, Matty Mariansky, Ronen Eidelman, Danielle Kaganov, Ayelet Zohar (PhD), Tamir Erlich, Anat Barzilai, Benjamin Freidenberg, Roee Rosen, Danielle Alhassid, Hrag Vertanian, Mor Cohen, Christoph Weber and Nikolaus Eckhard (Austria), Vaiva Grainyte (Lithuania), 

Conference Editors: Yonatan Amir, Rinat Edelstein, Ronen Eidelman
Producer: Alina Alexa

One-on-one sessions with Jerusalem based artists

The Pendulum
Pendulum – a weight suspended from a string, moving without rest, unable to stop, like the nomad who moves from one edge to the other in his travels. The nomad lives without stopping, he must continue to try and arrive at new places, places that exist only in the imagination. The nomad lives in uncertainty, without knowing, without any fixed routine. The nomad who travels without – spiritual or physical – portable property that can hinder his movement, moves freely through space. The nomadic entity recognizes the need to allow new ideas to evolve and embark on a spiritual journey to the unknown, asking to let go of the burden of existence and liberate oneself. Even when he is tired, he has to keep moving, to continue and choose: left or right, black or white. The constant movement is repetitive, rhythmic. The sway of the pendulum can bring the nomad’s soul to the edge of the chasm yet he must continue to choose, to move. He must continue to wander.
The artists featured in the 2020 Artist Appointment explored their own wanderings: personal, family, and global journeys. Each artist moved in a different path that you were able to join for a one-time experience, an invitation to rethink the pendulum movement that accompanies us in everyday choices that shape our lives.

Curator: Moran Sulmirski Noam
Production: Art Cube Artists’ Studios team
Manofim artistic directors: Rinat Edelstein and Lee He Shulov

Manofim, in collaboration with Generator present:
Broadcasted live from the new Haparsa hall in Jerusalem – a series of site-specific performances which mix art and music, east and west, old and new. Beside having heard wonderful music, we tried to examine the opportunity for interaction between the performances and the audience on live broadcast.

Performances List:
28.10 | Vulkaan Entertainment & Assaf Amdursky
29.10 | Black Bruises ft. Black Betty

Artistic management: Noa Melamed Vazana

We invited you for a one-off family experience of art and creation in Jerusalem galleries.
An event where you, parents and children, got to enjoy an enriching tour, a shared experience of looking at art and a unique creative workshop inspired by the various exhibitions.
You joined us for a colorful art experience that breathed life into the white walls and still spaces!
The session includes exhibition tour and workshop. The workshop is suitable for children ages 6-10

Curator: Shay Persil

A Child with Wings
Following the group exhibition “Bird, What Do You Sing Of?“
In a visit to the exhibition we explored: What does it even mean to be a bird? And if I were a bird, what kind of bird would I be? In the workshop, we flew to the realm of the imagination and fantasy, experiment with combining different materials, and composed a new and exceptional bird finder of extraordinary children birds.

If You See Me from the Front
Following the group exhibition “Salon Hacubia 2020 – Portrait”
What is a portrait and what is so unique about the experience of the point of view that emerges from it? What happens when I paint myself versus when I paint someone else? And what if I chose to paint only one part of the entire face?
We looked at portraits of different artists and created a shared parent-child portrait.

Around (My) World
Following the group exhibition “Fantastic Reality“
We explored the gallery and met artworks that express the artists’ personal stories. Tapping into the imagination as a reality creating tool, we created a map that will take us on a journey inside ourselves. Where will it lead us? Who will we encounter along the way? What do we need in order to leave? Using painting and drawing, we traced a path that only we know where it leads.

My Shape Book
Following the group exhibition “The Story of Pesach“
We learned different techniques of working with stencils and tapped into a world of shapes. We binded our own personal sketchbook with a Chinese cover, which accompanied us on our journey throughout the exhibition. After viewing the exhibition, we added our own shapes, impressions, and drawings inspired the works in it.

Cinderella Objects
Following Einat Arif-Galanti’s solo exhibition “Sunset”
We explored the exhibition that breathes life into objects that were washed up onto the beach. Following in the artist’s footsteps we gave a new meaning to everyday objects. We experimented with composition and object photography that restored its former glory and transformed it into a work of art.

Imprinting Rocks
Following Einat Amir’s solo exhibition “Land Escape“
We explored the exhibition, in which the artist uses stones to create new landscapes. Inspired by her work and by printing methods, we made stamps using organic materials found in every kitchen. We used them to compose a landscape that incorporates collage, painting and imprints of images the repeat each time in a slightly different variation.

New and standing art in Talpiot (English tour)
A Virtual tour at the Art Cube Artists’ Studios
Manofim in cooperation with the Generator presents: In this tour we invited you to explore the complex of Art Cube Artists’ Studios in Talpiot. We got to know the studios and the rich artistic activity and visited the exhibitions that are on display. We started with the ‘Sunset’ exhibition by the artist Einat Arif Galanti, which deals with the ecological state of the Mediterranean as it is reflected from the artist’s camera. And we continued to a preview peek of the new exhibitions that opened as part of the Manofim Festival: An Artist wall exhibition by the artists Adina Camhy and Dan Robert Lahiani, ‘Dimensions of a floor’-  a dialogical work in progress, conducted between Austria and Israel, and manifested via performative interventions in audiovisual and photographic forms. And with Lieke van der Made’s mini-exhibition in the Art Cube Artists’ Studios Vitrine, a product of her research of looted artifacts in museums in and around Jerusalem, alongside its ethical and political implications.

The tour was be led by Tsurit Stern, a tour guide and an artist living in Jerusalem, the Programming and education coordinator at the Art Cube Artists’ Studios.