The Jerusalem Season of Culture presents: Mekudeshet 2017

The Jerusalem Season of Culture presents:
Mekudeshet 2017

Challenging the world's conversation about Jerusalem

As public debate swirls over how to mark 50 years since the Six Day War, Mekudeshet invites audiences to set aside reflexive positions and dead-end arguments about the conflict and reexamine Jerusalem and its multiplicity of realities. Mekudeshet will stretch the boundaries of art, identity and sacredness in Jerusalem, challenging audiences to expand their perspectives, replace knee-jerk responses and cultivate understanding and empathy.

For three and a half weeks, Mekudeshet will translate the uniqueness of Jerusalem into a series of city-specific events that will rise to these challenges and keep you guessing. Innovative and fast-moving artistic frameworks will provide fresh perspectives, challenging ideas, journeys into the city’s fascinating undercurrents and introduce audiences to some of the many residents who are rethinking the city.

Mekudeshet also launched a brand new digital platform this summer with a specially commissioned clip—“Open Jerusalem”. The platform will provide access to the festival’s events to audiences throughout the world, share specially created digital art and generate a robust debate about the city, art, Mekudeshet and everything in between.

Artistic Director: Itay Mautner
Executive Director: Naomi Bloch Fortis


The Program
Roof hopping in Jerusalem—a unique opportunity to experience the city, art and some fresh perspectives from Jerusalem’s rooftops; a second chance to take part in doco-theatrical journeys in the footsteps of the city’s boundary dissolvers; a one-time invitation to participate in a real academic study that is also a performance; experimental nighttime sounds and experiences from deep within the city’s natural world; urban
ceremonies that will lull you to sleep, share losses and gains, invite you to release a few endorphins and encourage you to let go; an attempt to melt the region’s borders with its hottest musical, artistic, fashion and culinary trends; and a chance to share musical experiences with musicians of every color and creed who will ascend to Jerusalem to celebrate what they consider sacred.
Mekudeshet, Jerusalem, summer 2017

The Jerusalem Season of Culture presents: Mekudeshet 2017

Above and Beyond
An art exhibition on the city’s roofs
August 23-31
An innovative project that invites audiences to change their perspective—literally—by climbing up to some of Jerusalem’s most extraordinary rooftops, which are usually closed to the public. Audiences will be given a unique opportunity to hop from one roof to another in downtown Jerusalem, experience site-specific, multidisciplinary art, breathe in fresh air and fresh perspectives, and to take up an offer to spend the night sleeping on the roof of a local family home in the Old City.  

5 Ways to Dissolve Boundaries
Journeys on the seamline between art and reality in Jerusalem
English tours: September August 23, 29 and September 4,11
Audiences will be invited to discover Jerusalem anew—by foot or minibus—while stepping out of their comfort zones and into the lives of Jerusalem’s boundary dissolvers, whose identities traverse lines of right and left, religious and secular, east and west, Palestinian and Israeli. Far off the beaten path of religious shrines, archaeological digs, and Zionist monuments, participants journey deep into the worlds of real but extraordinary Jerusalemites, zigzagging across seen, unseen physical and conceptual boundaries.

Basic Assumption
Artistic performances in a laboratory researching emotions
August 24
There are certain emotions that are an essential but increasingly scarce element of a functioning democratic society. Artist Einat Amir and social psychologist, Yossi Hasson join forces for one evening in which audiences will participate in an ongoing academic study on one of these emotions that is also an interactive art performance.  For ten hours, in the heart of Jerusalem, we will create a human laboratory while, at the same time, providing a multisensory artistic experience that includes video art and live interaction with a team of actors.

Echoes
A nighttime sound experience in the heart of the most urban valley in the neighborhood.
August 31           
Now in its second year, Echoes will feature international sound artists and invite audiences
to experience a different side of Jerusalem—its nature—by venturing deep in to the Valley
of the Cross in the dark of night. Participants will create their own experiences, sit and listen to music, and carve out their own route as they unearth experimental sounds, acoustic performances, site-specific frequencies and experimental machinery.

Rites of Here and Now
Four new urban ceremonies that rely entirely on the audience
August 24-September 14
A series of contemporary urban ceremonies created especially for Jerusalem—a city replete with ritualistic traditions—including: a contemporary interpretation of the “reclaiming stone” from Jewish tradition in which participants will look for things they have lost and share what they have found in public space; a night of dream music spun by a DJ as audiences lay side-by-side on mattresses; a new running ritual for serious runners that combines a performative tour, extraordinary views of Jerusalem and a haze of endorphins; a simple action that demands absolute trust and much more.

Kulna (All of Us)
This is what our dreams sound like in the Middle East
September 7
A massive, colorful celebration for all Jerusalemites in the open air that allows music and art to melt the borders of our region. On the seamline between East and West Jerusalem, thousands of people from all backgrounds will come together to enjoy a taste of the contemporary culture of the Middle East—food, fashion, design, architecture, visual art, and, of course, music. The centerpiece of the evening will be a lively, original production by the Jerusalem Orchestra of Eastern and Western Music (formerly known as the Jerusalem Andalusian Orchestra), featuring Israeli and Palestinian soloists.  The project will also be streamed live across the globe to partnering cultural institutions.

Sacred Music
A musical celebration that spans borders, styles and faiths
September 7-15
Musicians of every color, faith, orientation and corner of the world will ascend to Jerusalem for a musical pilgrimage that celebrates all. From the heart of the Tower of David, new voices will ring forth from Jerusalem. We will also present original productions created especially for the festival and showcase local musical talent though our signature Night Stroll, which keeps seven stages going simultaneously all night long across the Tower of David. 

The Jerusalem Season of Culture presents: Mekudeshet 2017


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