tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21477104211082680292024-03-05T15:26:32.914-08:00Art, Zionism, and Identity in a Networked WorldARTISTS IN ISRAEL AND THE DIASPORA EXPLORE THE INTERSECTIONS OF ART, ZIONISM, AND IDENTITY IN THE NETWORK WORLD IN RELATION TO THEIR LIVES AND ARTWORK.Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-13281054582224700572017-06-11T00:44:00.001-07:002017-06-11T00:44:22.833-07:00"Art, Zionism and Identity" Series in The Times of Israel<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #c0a154; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-size: 30px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;">
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<br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Mel Alexenberg's article "On Being a Zionist Artist in the Networked World" appears as a five part series in <i>The Times of Israel</i>. The series can be accessed at <a href="http://artiststory.com/" style="color: #993322; text-decoration-line: none;">http://artiststory.com</a>and <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/mel-alexenberg/" style="color: #993322; text-decoration-line: none;">http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/mel-alexenberg/</a>.</span></div>
Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-33874364202194072982015-12-27T00:03:00.001-08:002015-12-30T23:12:46.199-08:00Embracing the Land of Israel<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>by Miriam Benjamin, Co-creator of Torah Tweets blogart project with her husband Mel Alexenberg <a href="http://bibleblogyourlife.blogspot.com/">http://bibleblogyourlife.blogspot.com</a> and in the book <i>Photograph God: Creating a Spiritual Blog of Your Life</i> <a href="http://photographgod.com/">http://photographgod.com </a></b></span>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>I embrace the Land of Israel with my fingers hugging its
earth. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As an artist, I bestow form to
pliant earth responsive to my touch that flows in veins of clay in the Negev
desert mountains near Yeroham where I lived for seven years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>To honor the president of Israel who was coming to visit
Yeroham, the town’s mayor commissioned me to make a gift for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wedged air out of Negev clay dug with the
aid of a geologist from Ben-Gurion University and centered it on my whirling
potter’s wheel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I shaped earth of Israel
into forms for marking the boundaries “between holy and profane, between light
and darkness, between Israel and the nations, and between the seventh day and
the six days of creation,” the words of the <i>havdalah</i> ceremony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>My wet fingers shaped the spinning clay into a goblet for
wine, into a spice box, and into a candle holder – three partners for bringing
closure to Shabbat through the interplay of the senses of taste, smell, and
sight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I impressed Hebrew letters
spelling out the words of <i>havdalah</i> into the clay around the rim of a
plate formed to hold the three ceremonial objects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I fired them in my kiln to harden the fragile
earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I formulated a glaze from the
ashes swept out of the <i>frena</i>, an earthen wood-burning oven for baking pita
in the backyards of my neighbors who immigrated to Israel from Morocco.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>President Yitzhak Navon visited my ceramics studio at
Ramat Hanegev College where I taught ceramics in a program to educate art
teachers for community centers throughout Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I explained to him how I had created the <i>havdalah</i>
set to link Jewish tradition to the North African immigrants of the town and to
the earth of the desert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>In an interview on the evening television news about the
waning pioneering spirit in Israel, President Navon said that he found the
pioneering spirit alive and well in Yeroham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He spoke about how I left the ceramic studio of Columbia University and
moved to an isolated town in the Negev desert sight unseen with my husband and
three children. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>ALIYAH OF A SAND FLOOR</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>I was born in Paramaribo, Suriname, the capital of the
Dutch colony where the Amazon jungle touches the Atlantic Ocean. To my good
fortune, I was born in Paramaribo and not in Amsterdam where all of my large
extended family there were murdered by the Nazis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>As a child, I loved to feel earth flow between my fingers
in the Suriname synagogue where my father chanted the Torah portion on Shabbat.
The entire floor was covered with sand to remind us of the trek of the
Israelites across the desert to reach the Promised Land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I rushed to be the first person in synagogue on
Friday evenings after the sand floors were raked smooth so that my footprints
would be the first to show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>I ran my fingers through the earth of Israel for the
first time outside my house in Paramaribo when my father's mother had passed
away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is Jewish tradition to bury our
dead in the Diaspora with earth from the Land of Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The feel of this special earth in my hands
for the hour before it was taken to the cemetery fascinated me. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>In 1950, my family made aliyah along with a prefabricated
house from Holland that was erected on my uncle's farm in Hibat Tzion
(Affection for Zion).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There my sister
and I spent many days with our hands in the earth planting and harvesting
potatoes and planting a flower garden and vegetable patch beside our
house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Our Paramaribo synagogue along with its sand floor
followed us on aliyah 60 years later. It was dismantled, transported to Israel
and reconstructed on the campus of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>In 1959, I met Mel Alexenberg a third-generation American
from a Zionist family. We were married on <i>motzei</i> Simhat Torah in New
York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jews throughout the world danced
on the Simchat Torah holiday and our families and friends continued to dance
into the night at our wedding after the holiday had ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the first five years of our marriage, we
were blessed with three children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>18
years later, our fourth child was born in Yeroham when we already had two
granddaughters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>We went on aliyah with our first three children in
1969.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being unhappy with the way
Israeli schools stifled creativity, Mel and I worked together to create the
first open school in Israel – the Center for Creative Learning – the
experimental school of the University of Haifa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All subjects were studied through the arts. We traveled in USA from
coast to coast visiting alternative schools that encouraged creativity that we
documented for presentation to the Education Committee of the Knesset.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>CREATING CLAYSCAPES</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Living in the Negev desert so strongly shaped my aesthetic
consciousness that it followed me into my Pratt Institute studio in New York
where I earned a Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA). Living in the desert, I
fashioned vessels to hold food or to use in Jewish rituals. On leaving the
desert, I stopped throwing pots and began to express my connection to my lost
desert environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmTgONxD921-Gi11w5Q0u_kSTqgRyM6jkaRh2SH2EBCU8tgiN8FZxvkxyCfFaVtyxPT3WpQsg-ExscKqtdVWnBioS_0DVCTOPiXzJdlnCHqY5i37k7ErekccSs_L87Z9PvuTLtD_YVPLEV/s1600/6d.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmTgONxD921-Gi11w5Q0u_kSTqgRyM6jkaRh2SH2EBCU8tgiN8FZxvkxyCfFaVtyxPT3WpQsg-ExscKqtdVWnBioS_0DVCTOPiXzJdlnCHqY5i37k7ErekccSs_L87Z9PvuTLtD_YVPLEV/s400/6d.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photograph taken by my talented grandson Or Alexenberg in the Negev where he lives</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>I had developed a vocabulary of earth forces from my
walks in the desert mountains stretching out from my home in Yeroham to the
edge of the Great Crater that begins the drop to the Dead Sea, the lowest place
on our planet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The desert is the best
place to see the Earth’s skin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
there that the shapes created by geological forces from beneath and by erosion
of wind and water from above are most apparent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The desert landscapes that we see are but hardened moments of vast
geological time not hidden by grass, by trees, by snow, or by buildings and
pavement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>The vocabulary of earth forces that I developed from my
encounters with the desert is the same vocabulary that I express through my
clayscapes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an obvious, yet
frequently overlooked fact that clay is earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My clayscapes are made of earth and their subject matter is earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After flash floods in the desert, I watched
the wet earth dry out and crack into beautiful patterns like the skin of a
giraffe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the hillsides, erosion
wrinkles the earth like the hide of an aged elephant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes the fast-moving water leaves
patterns like the feathery frost on winter window panes or like the venation
patterns of large tropical leaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>When I hold wet clay in my hands, my pushing, pulling,
lifting, tearing, pressing, scoring, folding and pinching caused clay to crack,
wrinkle, warp, rupture, slump, swell, shear, part, gnarl and burst.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also used a rolling pin to create flat,
smooth, continuous, quiet plains to contrast with active earth.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>My clayscapes are living forms documenting my dialogues
with pliable slabs of clay fired into stone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like a dry river bed shows where water once flowed, my clayscapes record
the interactions between my moving hands and the flowing response of wet
clay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They mirror the poetic vision of
the Psalms that assign life and motion to the mountains and deserts that
inspire my clayscapes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We read in <i>Psalm
</i>114: "The sea beheld and fled; the Jordan turned backwards; the
mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in <i>Psalm</i> 97: "The earth
beholds and trembles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mountains melt
like wax."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Artist Yaacov Agam visited my studios in Yeroham and
Miami intrigued by my clayscapes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
arranged a solo exhibition of them at the gallery that shows his work in
Honolulu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Proof that I captured in my
clayscapes the geological dynamics of natural systems was my exhibition's
failure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hawaiians saw my clayscapes as
if they were solidified lava rising up from inside the earth in the volcanic
eruptions on their islands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In their
tradition, it brought bad luck to remove pieces of frozen lava from their
natural resting place to show them in a gallery or have them in their
homes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>Clay in the hands of a creative artist can form earth
into expressions of the spiritual. In the Yom Kippur liturgy, clay in the hands
of a potter is used a metaphor for humanity in God's hands. The Hebrew word for
"clay" <i>khomer</i> is also used to mean "material" in
general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it is read backwards with
the middle letter dropped, the word for "clay" becomes the word for
"spirit" <i>ruakh</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
Judaism, the difference between the material world and the spiritual world is
one's perception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can look at the
material world and only see its physical properties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, if we shift our
perspective we can see the spiritual emerging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A perceptual shift can transform the ordinary into something
extraordinary and the mundane into the miraculous.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>REMNANTS OF A BURNT FOREST</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>In my studio at the South Florida Art Center on Miami
Beach, my clayscapes formed cylinder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One cylinder climbed atop another until they grew taller than me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I saw them as branchless trees or limbless
bodies.</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBHyRObYNRITRljB1d-9burQ30QQkk4dmTSHkl2cSAj30n2wWyzRgagsi_bRj63WrKzJu5Px2skjz7wPUqCt6b-WUDgXJUdZ4sVSb6CgGf4o3fPL22RqohDbXjzJpwfunfWzNqtbNXyKFx/s1600/rebirth.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBHyRObYNRITRljB1d-9burQ30QQkk4dmTSHkl2cSAj30n2wWyzRgagsi_bRj63WrKzJu5Px2skjz7wPUqCt6b-WUDgXJUdZ4sVSb6CgGf4o3fPL22RqohDbXjzJpwfunfWzNqtbNXyKFx/s400/rebirth.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>I was always drawn to the life stories told by the barks
of old trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My childhood memories of
giant Amazon jungle trees casting darkness over the river rapids behind my
house in Paramaribo merged with my encounters with gnarled barks of centuries-old
olive trees and scared ficus trees in Israel. I marvel at the renewal of life
when I see fresh growth sprouting from the scars of damaged trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>My human-size sculptures are both like trees stripped of
their branches by a forest fire and like helpless limbless Jews like my Dutch
family whose lives were cut short by the Holocaust and whose branches were cut
off from our family tree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My sculptures
were exhibited at the National Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, to commemorate
my mother's parents who perished in the fiery hell of Auschwitz.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I shared my mother's grief at the loss of her
entire family that stayed behind in Holland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>What an awesome statement of rebirth I experienced seeing
my mother giving a Hanukah piano concert at Beit Juliana Parents Home in
Herzliya when she was100. Mel photographed her with me, my daughter Iyrit, my
granddaughter Inbal, and my great-grandson Eliad – five generations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"From generation to generation, they
will dwell in the Land of Israel where the wilderness will rejoice over them,
the desert will be glad and blossom like a lily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her wilderness will be made like Eden and her
desert like a Divine garden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joy and
gladness will be found there, thanksgiving and the sound of music." (<i>Isaiah</i>
35:1, 51:3)</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>(This paper was published in <i>The Times of Israel</i>, Dec. 24, 2015, </b></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/embracing-the-land-of-israel/" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1451545456544_2452" target="_blank">http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/embracing-the-land-of-israel/ </a>. An expanded version was published in Hebrew in <i>Zipora: Journal of Education, Design and Contemporary Art</i>, No. 3, Oct. 2014.) </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>About the Artist:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Miriam Benjamin is a ceramic artist who has
created Jewish ceremonial objects and clayscapes inspired by the forces of
geology and erosion in the Negev desert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She created “Legacy Thrones,” three monumental artworks made in
collaboration with elders from different ethnic communities of Miami. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Benjamin
collaborated with her husband Mel Alexenberg in a blogart project, "Torah Tweets"
celebrating their 52 years together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her
artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums in New York, Miami,
Washington, Honolulu and Detroit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </i></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><i>She
studied at Columbia University, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred
University, Arrowmont School of Crafts in Tennessee, and Massachusetts College
of Art, and earned her M.F.A. at Pratt Institute in New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Benjamin was artist-in-residence at the South
Florida Art Center in Miami Beach and has taught at colleges in Israel and New
York and in the Experimental School of the University of Haifa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><i>She was born in Suriname, the Dutch colony in
South America, the great-granddaughter of the Chief Rabbi of Holland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She made aliyah with her family in 1950,
lived in <u>H</u>ibat Tzion and went to school and was active in the B’nai
Akiva Zionist youth movement across the road in K’far Haroeh. She lives in Ra’anana,
Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>
</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>
</b></span></div>
Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-20619046629096984662013-06-16T00:25:00.005-07:002015-12-27T09:59:15.501-08:00Art, Zionism, and Identity in the Networked World<span style="font-size: large;">Published in this blog are essays</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> that explore interrelationships between contemporary Zionism,
the structure of Jewish consciousness, the State of Israel and Diaspora Jewry, and new directions in art in the networked
world of a postdigtial age.</span> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The introductory essay by Mel Alexenberg in English and in Hebrew, and essays by Miriam Benjamin, Michael Bielicky, Shalom Gorewitz, Menachem Wecker, and Alan Kaufman are also posted on this blog.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2vFnv1laVktgVCWKUQh8T5bnuOCRQx-YDYXEOGbHSQOYLBrTvMO-eddEytW9I0zBdpCtZepgLz5ypCELiPRUQX_mlnqYi6xLQRIDT8YVn-0Sk7bzpA3TWJrz5sTJfsz6zK8dgxJ1aE7E/s1600/5d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2vFnv1laVktgVCWKUQh8T5bnuOCRQx-YDYXEOGbHSQOYLBrTvMO-eddEytW9I0zBdpCtZepgLz5ypCELiPRUQX_mlnqYi6xLQRIDT8YVn-0Sk7bzpA3TWJrz5sTJfsz6zK8dgxJ1aE7E/s400/5d.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photograph by Or Alexenberg, Yeroham, Israel</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-84476571680901707602010-06-27T00:35:00.000-07:002016-07-03T03:25:18.828-07:00On Being a Zionist Artist in a Networked World<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">by Mel Alexenberg</span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP60xpLAPQHZxDnBPu-ZFEkPU1m6lhSU78oaVH8gDrD3ozjRhVsFli9EI1Dknrl122ZcSz1hIzOPEOJWdWNr3MewSf6yd_pYvb8Qbw9m5Oh39wZXfWWnlQAqUegKhOSG_a8L65k2UyMKw/s1600/zkm-images+093.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP60xpLAPQHZxDnBPu-ZFEkPU1m6lhSU78oaVH8gDrD3ozjRhVsFli9EI1Dknrl122ZcSz1hIzOPEOJWdWNr3MewSf6yd_pYvb8Qbw9m5Oh39wZXfWWnlQAqUegKhOSG_a8L65k2UyMKw/s400/zkm-images+093.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">The great biblical miracle of liberating one nation of
thousands from enslavement in the one country of Egypt after hundreds of years
of exile pales in comparison with the Zionist miracle in our time of liberating
millions of Jews from persecution, pogroms, and the Holocaust in scores of countries
after thousands of years of exile and bringing them home to Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Choosing to be an integral part of this
Zionist miracle, unprecedented in world history, offers me enthralling creative
opportunities as an artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">I draw inspiration from the Zionist challenge of Rabbi </span>Abraham
Isaac Kook to<span style="color: black;"> “renew the old and sanctify the new” as
I explore the vibrant interface between the structure of Jewish consciousness,
the realization of the Zionist dream in the State of Israel, and new directions
in art emerging from postdigital creativity in a networked world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span> </span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The wellsprings of my Zionism flows
from my Jewish roots and values while the form and content of my art emerges
from Jewish thought and experience in a networked world in which of art,
science, technology, and culture address each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As an artist
born and educated in the United
States, I chose to leave a country that I
love and that gave me wonderful professional opportunities to be part of the
Zionist enterprise that permits me to be more fully immersed at the center of
Jewish life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Zionism seeks to ensure the
future and distinctiveness of the Jewish people by fostering Jewish spiritual
and cultural values in its historic homeland (World Zionist Organization,
Jerusalem Program, 2004).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a Zionist
artist I strive to create both an intimate dialogue with the Jewish people and
a lively conversation with people throughout the world. </span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art
crossing over into a new reality</i></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The biblical
story of the Jewish people begins with the journey of Abraham as he crosses
over from his all too familiar past to see a fresh vision of a future in a new
land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, Abraham is called a Hebrew
(<i>Ivri</i>) – one who crosses over into a new reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Abraham is told: “Go for yourself from
your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house to the land that
I will show you.” (<i>Genesis </i>12:1)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This passage can also be read as: “Walk with your authentic self away
from all the familiar and comfortable places that limit vision to a land where
you can freely see.” Here, the dynamic Hebraic mindset is established as new
ways of seeing emerge from the integration of our journey to the Land of Israel with our inner quest for
spiritual significance. </span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The personal
power of Abraham to leave an obsolete past behind and to cross conceptual
boundaries into an unknown future presents a powerful message to me as a
Zionist artist living in a democratic Jewish State in a postdigital age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today in Israel and at the leading edge of
technologically advanced societies worldwide, we are beginning to cross over
from the digital culture of the Information Age to a Conceptual Age in which
people in all walks of life will succeed most when they behave like artists who
integrate left-brain with right-brain thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Industrial Age factory workers and Information Age knowledge workers are
being superseded by Conceptual Age creators and empathizers who integrate high
tech abilities with high touch and high concept abilities of aesthetic and
spiritual significance.<sup>1</sup></span></span></b> <br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art debunking
art</i></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Subverting
idolatry with a twist of irony has been the mission of the Jews from their very
beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a prelude to the biblical
story of Abraham beginning his journey away from his father’s world to the Land of Israel, the <i>Midrash</i> tells that
Abraham was minding his father’s idol shop when he took a stick and smashed the
merchandise to bits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He left only the
largest idol untouched placing the stick in its hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When his father returned, his shock at seeing
the scene of devastation grew into fury as he demanded an explanation from his
son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Abraham explained how the largest
idol had broken all the other idols.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
could have smashed all the idols without saving one on which to place the
blame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An idol smashing idols gives us
clues for creating art to debunk art, art that aims to undermine undue
reverence for art, art that challenges the established canon of Western
art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I am interested
in creating art to knock art off its pedestal by displaying a creative
skepticism not just towards art’s subjects but also towards its purposes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his book on Jewish American painters in
the twentieth century, Ori Soltis comments on my series of <i>Digitized Homage
to Rembrandt </i>paintings, photomontages, computer-generated etchings,
serigraphs, lithographs, and telecommunications events: “Alexenberg
appropriates an iconic image from the Christian art tradition: Rembrandt’s
angel, who wrestles with Jacob.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he
transforms and distorts it, digitalizing and dismembering it, transforming the
normative Western tradition within which he works as he rebels against it.” <sup>2</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><i><span style="line-height: 150%;">Art emerging from Hebraic rather than
Hellenistic consciousness</span></i></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;"> </span></i></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As a Zionist
artist, I am joining artists worldwide in liberating art from Hellenistic
dominance since its revival in the Renaissance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The 20<sup>th</sup> century was a century of modernism that aimed to
undermine the Hellenistic definition of art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The 21st century invites a redefinition of art derived from the Hebraic
roots of Western culture rather than its Hellenistic roots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">"</span>The
Greeks and the Jews are the two peoples whose worldviews have most influenced
the way we think and act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of them from angles so different has
left us with the inheritance of its
genius and wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No two cities have
counted more with Mankind than
Athens and Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their messages in religion, philosophy, and
art have been the main guiding light
in modern faith and culture.” <sup>3 </sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;"><b>More than three thousand
years ago, King David moved the capital of ancient Israel from</b> <b>Hebron to
Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Five centuries later during
the Golden Age of Athens, the major temples of the Acropolis were built under
the leadership of Pericles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my
Mediterranean Rim Wikiart Project, a text inviting the participation
of people from the 21 Mediterranean rim countries was posted on my art blog
<a href="http://www.wikiartists.us/">http://www.wikiartists.us</a> in the many languages of these countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only Hebrew and Greek, the millennia old
languages of the indigenous peoples of the Land of Israel and Greece are still
in use and continue to be written with the same two ancient alphabets<span style="color: red;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>
</span> </b></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;"><b>The Hellenistic definition
of art as mimesis is reflected in the words for art in contemporary European
languages: art in English and French, <i>arte</i> in Spanish,<i> Kunst</i>
in German and Dutch, and <i>iskustvo</i> in Russian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The roots of all these words are related to
artificial, artifact, imitation, and phony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In contrast, the Hebrew word for artist (<i>oman</i>) is spelled <i>AMN</i>
with the same letters as the word <i>amen</i> which means truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its feminine form is <i>emunah</i>, faith,
and as a verb <i>l’amen</i> means to nurture and educate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;"><b>This ancient Greek
view of art as mimesis, imitating nature, arresting the flow of life, has
become obsolete as new definitions of art are arising from Jewish thought and
action that explore issues of truth, faith, and education as they enrich
everyday life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the classic book <i>Hebrew
Thought Compared with Greek</i>, Hebraic thought<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is characterized as being “dynamic, vigorous,
passionate, and sometimes quite explosive in kind; correspondingly Greek
thinking is static, peaceful, moderate, and harmonious in kind.” <sup>4</sup> </b></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;"><b>That
it is the Hebraic rather than the Hellenistic roots of Western culture that is
redefining art in a rapidly expanding networked world is argued throughout my
books <i>The Future of Art in a Postdigital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness</i><sup>5</sup>
<a href="http://future-of-art.com/">http://future-of-art.com </a>and its Hebrew version <i>Dialogic Art in a Digital World: Four Essays on
Judaism and Contemporary Art</i>.<sup>6</sup> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Art revealing the power of Hebrew letters
in an era of digital and bio technologies<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;"><b>One of the Zionist
enterprise’s greatest accomplishments is reviving Hebrew as the common everyday
language uniting Jews who have returned to their homeland speaking scores of
different languages. There is an aesthetic and spiritual power in seeing Hebrew
letters dancing across storefronts in the Jewish State, flashing across TV
screens, Googling and SMSing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hebrew
letters have a special meaning for the artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The mishkan’s artist, Betzalel, is said to have had the divine
secret of forging combinations of the 22 Hebrew letters to create new worlds.
The digital era makes this kabbalistic notion of artistic creativity through
making permutations of bits of information more than a quaint legend.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;"><b>It is computer science rather than mysticism,
physics rather than metaphysics that lets us reveal in our times this ancient
wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the multitude of words,
sounds and images that we can access today on the Internet, CDs, and DVDs are
encoded in bits strung together in groupings of eight called bytes. The 256 bit
permutations in one byte are in turn grouped into billions of combinations that
we perceive as a web site, a computer game, a text, a song, or a movie.</b></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;"><b>Jewish tradition
sees the 22 sacred Hebrew letters as profound, primal, spiritual forces, the
raw material of Creation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The numerous
alternative arrangements of the letters in words results in different blends of
cosmic spiritual forces that finds a parallel in natural systems where different
numbers of protons, neutrons, and electrons form the atoms of each of the 92
different elements. These atoms, in turn, combine into molecules, and molecules
into supersized molecules like DNA in which the code of all life’s forms is
written with only four letters: A-T, T-A, and C-G, G-C.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;"><b>The interplay between combinations and
permutations of Hebrew letters in the spiritual</b> <b>realm, of atoms and molecules
in the physical realm, and bits and bytes in the realm of digital media,
provides raw materials for creating artworks that generate a lively dialog
between the Jewish past and Israel’s
future as a world center of digital and bio technologies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art revealing the spiritual dimensions of everyday life in
the Land of Israel<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">The great transgression of ten of the leaders of the
Israelite tribes who were charged to spy out the Land of Israel after their
exodus from Egypt was their inability to discern the difference between hard
work as slaves in Egypt and hard work building their own land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>Only Joshua and Calev met the
challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Torah tells us that Calev
of the tribe of Judah
had “a different spirit” (<i>Numbers: </i>14:24).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike the others, he was able to make the
paradigm shift to<span style="color: black;"> recognize </span>that the challenge
of living in the Land
of Israel was <span style="color: black;">to see spirituality emerging from all aspects of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Ten of the spies chose to remain in the desert where they
could live a totally spiritual existence learning Torah all day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would not have to work at all since food
was delivered daily for free at the opening of their tents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Land of Israel,
they would have to grow their own food, build houses, fight enemies, and
collect garbage which seemed to them like returning to the slavery they had
just left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These ten spies were
sentenced to death in the desert for their inability to see that the spiritual
arises from the quality of one’s encounter with the material world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The descendents of Calev’s tribe of Judea are almost all of the Jews who have the great
privilege of returning to our homeland and rebuilding it 3500 years later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the descendents of the ten spies who
lacked “a different spirit” have disappeared.</span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Calev’s great-grandson, the prototypic Jewish artist
Betzalel, sets a direction for today’s Zionist artists by having created an
environment that invites holiness into our concrete world – “God walks in the
midst of the camp…therefore shall your camp be holy” (<i>Deuteronomy</i>
23:15).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I invited my students at the
School of the Arts at Emuna College in Jerusalem and at Ariel University to
reveal holiness by photographing divine light emanating from their everyday
life in Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I created a blog to show
their work: http://www.photographgod.com.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We can
appreciate Calev’s alternative viewpoint through the 20<sup>th</sup> century experience
of the Rebbe of Sadegora, Rabbi Avraham Freidman (1884-1961). The Nazis
attempted to humiliate the Rebbe in the eyes of his Hasidim by forcing him at
gunpoint to work all day sweeping streets and collecting garbage and at night
to march waving a Nazi flag.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Rebbe
survived the Holocaust and moved to Tel Aviv where he rose early every morning
in the week before Israel Independence Day to join the city’s sanitation
workers in sweeping streets and collecting garbage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At night, he could be seen walking through the
streets of Tel Aviv waving the Israeli flag.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He marveled at the great privilege he had to keep his city clean and to
honor his nation’s flag.</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art
conveying its message through form and medium </i></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the beginning
of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, the first Zionist artists Ephriam Lilien and
Boris Schatz, the artists who participated in the exhibition at the 5<sup>th</sup>
Zionist Congress in 1901, and the theoreticians of culture Martin Buber and
Ahad Ha’am saw Zionist art only in terms of content and iconography.<sup>7</sup>
Landscapes of the Land of Israel, Jewish subjects, and biblical scenes
idealizing the Bedouin types as if they were ancient Israelites were the
content of their artwork expressed in alien European forms and media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These first Zionist artists did not liberate
themselves from the Hellenistic definition of art that was plastered over their
Jewish consciousness by centuries of indoctrination living in Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The significance
of form and medium in Jewish life is so strong that we only read the Torah
portion in synagogue from a scroll hand-written on parchment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we have no Torah scroll, we read nothing
at all rather than read the identical content from a Hebrew Bible printed in a
rectangular codex book form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tradition
teaches how the Israelites were enslaved in the <i>malben</i>, which means both
brickyard and rectangle. The Torah trapped in a <i>malben</i> between two book
covers cannot convey a message of liberation expressed by a free-flowing spiral
scroll.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The heart (spelled <i>LB</i> in
Hebrew) of the Torah is the place where the last letter <i>L</i> in the word <i>yisrael
</i>(Israel)
is linked to the first letter <i>B </i>in <i>b’reshit </i>(In the beginning) in
an endless flow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both changing form and
medium radically changes the message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
Torah written on Japanese rice paper is bizarre and one written on pigskin
would be the ultimate anti-Semitic statement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We can recognize the life-affirming parallel between the double spiral
of the Torah scroll and the DNA molecule in which all life forms are
encoded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To explore form
and media in Jewish thought and experience, I invited fellow artists at MIT’s
Center for Advanced Visual Studies to collaborate with me in creating <i>LightsOROT:
Spiritual Dimensions of the Electronic Age</i>,<sup>8</sup> an exhibition for Yeshiva University Museum.<sup>
</sup>Creating art in a digital age in a networked world offers Zionist artists
unprecedented opportunities to invent alternative art forms and explore new
media confluent with the structure of Jewish consciousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art imitating
the Creator rather than the creation</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I am interested
in being an active partner of the Creator of the universe in the on-going
creation of new worlds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a Jewish
artist, it is not the Hellenistic vision of a complete and ideal nature to be
copied that is the primary artistic value, but it is the emulation of the process
of creation itself that is valued.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore,
I studied in depth the creative process in art and science from a psychodynamic
point of view that I present in my book <i>Aesthetic Experience in Creative
Process</i>.<sup>9</sup></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Two millennia
ago, the Roman governor over the Land
of Israel asked Rabbi
Akiva, “Which are greater and more beautiful, human creations or God’s?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The governor was disturbed by the rabbi’s
response that human creation is more exalted than divine creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the Roman was questioning the rabbi’s
unexpected response, the rabbi served a plate of wheat grains to the Roman and
took cakes for himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The puzzled
Roman asked, “Why do you take cakes for yourself while you give me raw grains
of wheat?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rabbi Akiva answered, “You prefer
God’s creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I prefer the creations
of human hands!”</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%;">Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, first Chief
Rabbi of the Land of Israel and founder of Yeshivat Mercaz ha’Rav in Jerusalem, provides a
poetic manifesto for the Zionist artist derived from the deep structure of Jewish
consciousness:</span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Whoever
is endowed with the soul of a creator must create works of imagination and <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>thought, for the flame of the soul rises
by itself and one cannot impede it on its course…. The creative individual brings vital, new light from the higher
source where originality emanates
to the place where it has not previously been manifest, from the place that “no
bird of prey knows, nor has the
falcon’s eye seen.” (<i>Job</i> 28:7), “that no man has passed, nor has any person dwelt” (<i>Jeremiah</i>
2:6)."<sup> 10</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="direction: ltr; line-height: 150%; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%;">Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, who
served as president of the Mizrachi Zionists of America, proposes that the
dream of creation is the central idea in Jewish consciousness – the idea of the
importance of human partnership with the Almighty in creating new worlds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He writes:</span></span></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"<span style="font-style: normal;">This longing for creation and the
renewal of the cosmos is embodied in all of Judaism’s <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>goals….<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a man wishes to
attain the rank of holiness, he must become a creator of worlds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If a man never creates, never brings into being anything new, anything
original, then he cannot be holy
unto his God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That passive type who is
derelict in fulfilling his task
of creation cannot become holy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Creation
is the lowering of transcendence into the midst
of our turbid, coarse, material world. <sup>11</sup></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I attempt to act
as partner of the Creator during six days of the week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I stop my creative work one day each
week and step back to admire and honor the handiwork of the Creator of the
universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This Sabbath Day is both a
Non-Art Day and an Ecology Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Emulating Betzalel and his artistic collaborators who stopped building
the <i>mishkan </i>on Shabbat, I stop my artistic activities on the seventh day
to celebrate Non-Art Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, all
Shabbat observance is defined by artistic activity, by the 39 craft categories
involved in building the <i>mishkan</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>From when the sun sets on Friday evening to the time stars dot the sky
on Saturday night, I celebrate Non-Art Day as well as Ecology Day by leaving
the world they way I got it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I replenish
my soul on Shabbat so that on the eighth day I can resume with renewed energies
the role of partner with the Creator in <i>tikun olam</i>, actively making the
world a better place for all humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art
engaging the Torah in a playful spirit</i></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As an artist, I
engage the Torah in creative play through both my conceptual and aesthetic
explorations. The Torah itself teaches us to approach it in a playful
spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <i>Psalm </i>119:174, we
read: “Your Torah is my plaything<i> </i>(<i>sha’ashua</i>).”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Sha’ashua </i>is a toy to engage children
in play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <i>Proverbs </i>8:30, 31,
King Solomon speaks in the voice of the Torah:<i> </i>“I [the Torah] was the
artist’s plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was His [God’s] delight
every day, playing before Him at all times, playing in the inhabited areas of
His earth, my delights are with human beings.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This translation from the Hebrew original is based on the ancient wisdom
on the first page of <i>Midrash Rabba. <sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup></i>God as the master artist played
creatively with the Torah, His plan for creating the universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Midrash Rabba </i>uses these two verses
from <i>Proverbs </i>to explain the first words of the Torah, “In the beginning
God created.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God first created
“Beginning” referring to the Torah as an open-ended blueprint for creating the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We learn this from an earlier
verse, <i>Proverbs </i>8:22, “God made me [the Torah] as the beginning of His
way, before His deeds of yore.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In human
emulation of God’s delight, we are invited to play with the Torah as we create
new worlds.</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rabbi Abraham
Isaac Kook wrote a letter of congratulations on the founding of the Betzalel Art
School in Jerusalem in 1906.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By way of allegory, he refers to the revival
of Jewish art and aesthetics after two thousand years of exile as a child in a
coma who awakes calling for her doll.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"The pleasant and beloved child, the delightful daughter, after
a long and forlorn illness, with a face
as pallid as plaster, bluish lips, fever burning like a fiery furnace, and convulsive shaking and trembling,
behold!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has opened her eyes and her
tightly <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>sealed lips, her little hands
move with renewed life, her thin pure fingers wander hither and thither, seeking their purpose;
her lips move and almost revert to their normal color, and as if through a medium a voice is heard: “Mother,
Mother, the doll, give me the doll, <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>the
dear doll, which I have not seen for so long.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A voice of mirth and a voice of <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>gladness,
all are joyous, the father, the mother, the brothers and sisters, even the
elderly man and woman who, because
of their many years, have forgotten their children’s games." <sup>12</sup></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rabbi Kook saw
artists at work as a clear sign of the rebirth of the Jewish people in its
homeland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their playful spirit nurturing
sensitivity for beauty “will uplift depressed souls, giving them a clear and
illuminating view of the beauty of life, nature, and work.” <sup>13</sup><i>
</i></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art education
through visual midrash</i></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span dir="LTR" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%;">Not only are the Hebrew words for ‘artist’ and ‘educating’
related, but the Torah teaches that Betzalel and Oholiav are divinely endowed
with artistic talent coupled with the talent to teach (</span><span dir="LTR" style="line-height: 150%;">Exodus</span><span dir="LTR" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%;"> 35:30-34). Creating art can be an alternative method of
Torah study that beautifies the </span><span dir="LTR" style="line-height: 150%;">mitzvah</span><span dir="LTR" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%;"> of study through creating visual </span><span dir="LTR" style="line-height: 150%;">midrash</span><span dir="LTR" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span dir="LTR" style="line-height: 150%;">Midrash
</span><span dir="LTR" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%;">is the unique Jewish literary form that combines commentary,
legend, and narrative explanations of biblical texts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a sense, </span><span dir="LTR" style="line-height: 150%;">midrash</span><span dir="LTR" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%;"> fills the spaces between the written words to reveal deeper
meanings of scriptural passages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Art as
visual </span><span dir="LTR" style="line-height: 150%;">midrash</span><span dir="LTR" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%;"> provides fresh commentaries on biblical texts through
multimedia experiences that extend the verbal exploration of text into visual
realms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Context’ in its primal meaning
is ‘with text’<sup>14</sup> while context is the defining characteristic of postmodern
art.<sup>15 </sup></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In order to better
understand the cultural context of my values as a Zionist artist in an era of
globalization, I invited renowned art educators worldwide to redefine art and
art education at the interdisciplinary interface where scientific inquiry and
new technologies shape aesthetic and cultural values – local and global.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This inquiry resulted in my book <i>Educating
Artists for the Future: Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science,
Technology, and Culture.</i><sup>16</sup> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art
education through community involvement</i></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Torah
describes two prototypic Jewish artists – Betzalel and Oholiav.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“See,
I have called by name: <i>Betzalel ben Uri ben <u>H</u>ur</i>, of the tribe of Judah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have filled him with a divine spirit, with
wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, and with the talent for all types of
craftsmanship” (<i>Exodus</i> 31:2).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
literal translation of this artist’s name is: “In the Divine Shadow son of
Fiery Light son of Freedom.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It honors
the artist’s passion and freedom of expression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Torah describes Betzalel’s partner, “I have assigned with him<i>
Oholiav ben A<u>h</u>isamakh </i>of the tribe of Dan, and I have placed wisdom
in the heart of every naturally talented person” (<i>Exodus </i>31:6).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oholiav’s full name means “My Tent of
Reliance on Father, Son, and My Brother,” integrating the contemporary with its
past and future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Father, son, and
brother stand together with the artist in a common tent in mutual support of
one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Betzalel represents the
psychological power of the artist and Oholiav the sociological impact on
community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Working together, they create
a shared environment of spiritual power.</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">My wife, artist
Miriam Benjamin, and I collaborated with elders and youth from different ethnic
communities in creating <i>Legacy Thrones</i>, monumental works of public art
in Miami.<sup>17</sup> In Israel, we created an
Institute for Arts and Jewish Life in Yeroham to educate art teachers for
community centers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We lived in Yeroham
for seven years where we taught students from throughout Israel and the
Diaspora to integrate the creative energies of Betzalel with the impact on
community of Oholiav.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art revealing
beauty in</i> <i>processes of liberation and creation <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Zionism and the
visual arts interface as they emerge from the core values of Judaism as
expressed in the Ten Commandments, which begins:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I am <i>YHVH</i> (Was-Is-Will Be), your God,
who has taken you out of the Land
of Egypt (Narrow
Straits), out of the House of Slavery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do not have any other gods before Me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You shall not make yourself any carved statue or picture of anything in
the heaven above, on the earth below, or the water beneath the land.” (<i>Exodus
</i>20:1-14, repeated in <i>Deuteronomy</i> 5:6-18)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The biblical
divine name <i>YHVH</i> is associated with beauty (<i>tiferet</i>) and the
historic process of attaining freedom from slavery. <i>YHVH</i> is a verb, not
a noun, combining the Hebrew words for <i>was</i>, <i>is</i> and <i>will be</i>,
a process in time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>YHVH</i> is both<i>
</i>the Liberator from narrowness and the Creator of the heaven, earth, and
water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The biblical name for Egypt,<i> mitzrayim</i>, literally means <i>from
narrow straits</i>, to teach that national liberation is the process of
attaining independence from narrow-mindedness to experiencing expansive freedom
in the Land of Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>when Moses sent
scouts to explore the Land
of Israel from the
wilderness of Tzin to Re<u>h</u>ov (<i>Numbers</i> 13:21). Joshua sent scouts
four decades later who arrived at the house of Ra<u>h</u>av (<i>Joshua</i>
1:1).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Ra<u>h</u>av </i>and<i> Re<u>h</u>ov</i>
mean <i>wide expanses</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having left
slavery in the narrow straits the Israelites headed toward the freedom of wide
expanses in their own land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">God is One, both
Liberator from narrow straits and Creator of the wide expanses of heaven,
earth, and water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was-Is-Will Be is the
Liberator from ancient Egypt’s
cult of the dead and the Creator of a world overflowing with vibrant life. As a
Jewish artist, I avoid creating art that freezes the lively process of creation
and the dynamic process of liberation, arresting them in fixed images. I avoid
stilling life meant to flow freely or solidifying in stone that which is in
flux.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Israelites exodus from Egypt’s
narrow straits, from the land of the Book of the Dead and its immovable
pyramids led to a process of liberation in the wide expanse of the desert,
where they received of the Book of Life (<i>torat chaim</i>), and built a
Lego-like moveable <i>mishkan</i> deconstructed and reconstructed numerous
times during their four-decade journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Zionist challenge then as now is to settle in the Land of Israel
with the expansive viewpoint of movement in the open desert without regressing
to the narrow viewpoint engendered by a sedentary mentality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a land that devourers <i>yoshveha</i>,
its inhabitants who sit still (<i>Numbers</i> 13:32) rather than those who are
on the go (<i>Genesis</i> 12:1).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those
residents of the Land
of Israel who are not
passive, but actively create movement, growth, and change are not in danger of
being consumed. </span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">An authentic Zionist arts movement
encourages artists to create transformative artworks and adventuresome artforms
that not only explore the intersections of Zionism and the arts, but reveal
beauty in the dynamic processes of liberation and creation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theodor Herzl wrote in his visionary Zionist
novel <i>Altneuland</i> (<i>Old-New</i><i>
Land</i>): </span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Beauty and
wisdom do not die because their creators die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just as the conservation of energy
is self-evident, so must we infer that there is conservation of beauty and wisdom…. Have the sayings of our ancient sages
perished? No, their flame burns brightly,
even if in happy times it is less clearly visible than in dark days, like all
flames.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
what should we learn from this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That we
should strive to increase beauty and wisdom
in this earth, as long as we live." <sup>18</sup></span></span></b> <br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: blue;">Art
expressing love for the land of Israel</span> </i></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rabbi Kook
stresses the intrinsic bond between the Land of Israel
and the Jewish People that extends to a call to delight and rejoice in the
beauty of the land: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"<span style="font-style: normal;">The Land of Israel
is not something external, not an external national asset, a means to the end of collective solidarity and the
strengthening of the nation’s existence, physical or even spiritual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Land of Israel is an essential unit bound by the
bond-of-life to the <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>People, united by
inner characteristics to its existence." <sup>19 </sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"See
the splendor of an attractive land, the splendor of the Carmel
and the Sharon,
the<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>splendor of the pleasant and
beautiful azure skies, the magnificence of the clear, pure, <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>temperate air that reigns in its majesty
and glory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Delight and rejoice in this
desirable, <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>fair and pleasing land,
a land of life, a land whose air is the wellspring of the spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How beautiful
and how graceful she is!" <sup>20 </sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some of my
earliest memories form the beginnings of my education as a Zionist artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember sitting on the counter in my
grandfather’s Hebrew bookshop on Coney
Island Avenue in Brooklyn in the 1940’s surrounded
by images of the Land of Israel in the calendars, postcards, posters, and
metal relief pictures from the Bezalel workshops in Jerusalem that he sold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would often watch him carving <i>mezuzot</i>
from mother-of-pearl and olive wood imported from Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My grandfather, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Kahn,
left the Telz Yeshiva in Lithuania
in 1900 to participate in the 4<sup>th</sup> Zionist Congress in London never to
return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He settled to Boston where he was married and my mother was
born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he passed away four years
before his Zionist dream was realized in 1948, my grandmother came to live with
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I came home from school, she
spread out the Yiddish newspaper on the kitchen table for us to sit together
and search for pictures of Israel
which we would cut out and paste in scrap books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On quiet Shabbat afternoons, we would often
sit together immersed in a virtual journey to the Land of Israel
through our scrap books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When I first
came to Israel
in 1969, I sensed I had been there many times before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had fallen in love years before in New York
with Israel’s diverse landscape, from the green hills of the Galilee to the
Negev desert where my son and his family now live, from Petah Tikva where I
live to Jerusalem where I work, from the Dead Sea to the coral reefs of Eilat,
from the surf at the Tel Aviv beach to the Western Wall, and from mountainous
Tzfat to the Ramon Crater.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This love of
the land urges Zionist artists to explore, articulate, express, and document
the landscape, from its gentle beauty to its overwhelming magnificence, and to create
earth art and ecological artworks to honor the land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The artist Ezra Orion
organized an environmental art event in which ten Israeli artists were invited
to create works of earth art at Sodom at the
southern end of the Dead Sea on Purim 5744/1984.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I appropriated a hill blocking the wadi
between the mountain ranges of Moab
and Edom to create an earth
artwork relating Sodom
to Purim: <a href="http://www.melalexenberg.com/artworks/Sodom.doc">http://www.melalexenberg.com/artworks/Sodom.doc</a>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art creating
dialog between Israel and the Diaspora</i></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Although living
in Israel
by a Jewish calendar, speaking Hebrew, walking on the soil of our ancestors is
the Zionist ideal, the networked world provides unprecedented opportunities for
Jewish artists in the homeland and those in the Diaspora to creatively interact
with each other. Internet 2.0 generates alternative frameworks for global
communities to form and flourish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Zionist artists can form virtual communities spreading rhizome-like
across the surface of the globe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Israel
becoming the central node in these worldwide communities is the realization of
the dream of the cultural Zionists led by Ahad Ha’am at the First Zionist
Congress in 1897.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition, artists
share their creative works through their websites, blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Rhizome,
LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Particularly vital to
the Zionist future is creative dialog and collaboration between the two largest
Jewish communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through inspired
partnerships between artists in Israel,
the world center of Jewish culture, and artists in the USA, the world center of artistic
innovation, a new Zionist energy will emerge and flourish.</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In addition to energizing the
creative dialog between Jews in Israel
and United States,
it is important to the Zionist enterprise in a networked world to establish a
creative dialog between Israelis and Americans of diverse backgrounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To realize this extended dialog, I created a
work of participatory blogart ‘JerUSAlem-USA’ linking the twenty places in the United States called ‘Jerusalem’
with the original in Israel:
<a href="http://jerusalem-usa.blogspot.com/">http://jerusalem-usa.blogspot.com</a>. In this collaborative artwork, Americans
send photographs of Jerusalems in USA
to which Israelis respond with matched images of Jerusalem
in Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This digital dialog creates an interactive
network of people with shared values that deepens friendships between them. </span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
Lubavicher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, teaches:</span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"The divine
purpose of the present information revolution, which gives an individual<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span> unprecedented power and opportunity,
is to allow us to share knowledge - spiritual knowledge
– with each other, empowering and unifying individuals everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need
to use today’s interactive technology not just for business or leisure but to
interlink as people – to create a
welcome environment for the interaction of our souls, our hearts, our visions." <sup>21</sup></span></span></b> <br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art confronting
hatred, bigotry, racism, terrorism, and cults of death with moral outrage </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the tradition
of Picasso’s <i>Guernica</i>,<i> </i>I have created
a work of webart <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">http://www.futureholocaustmemorials.org
</span>to warn the world of Iran’s
quest for a nuclear bomb to “wipe Israel off the map.” Just as the
world’s acquiesce to Hitler’s raining bombs on the Basque village Guernica gave
him the license to proceed with preparing for WW II and exterminating the Jews
of Europe on his way to global conquest, the world’s indifference to the
thousands of rockets launched against Israel by Iran’s proxy armies, Hamas and
Hizbullah, are empowering Iran to incinerate the Jews of Israel as a
prelude to the Islamist’s global jihad.<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span lang="EN"><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b>My webart cries out “Never Again!” to
the apathetic world</b> </span></b></span></span></b></span></span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span lang="EN"><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span lang="EN">of </span></span></span></span></b>nations that did little to prevent the murder of six million Jews in
Europe or collaborated with the Nazis in their
extermination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It issues a powerful
warning to these same nations now pressuring the Jews, the indigenous people of
the Land of Israel, to surrender its historic
heartland for establishing a Palestinian terrorist state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It exposes the fact that the majority of the
Arabs living in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza freely elected the Iranian proxy Hamas thugs whose
genocidal charter reads:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“</span></span><span style="color: black;">Israel</span><span style="color: black;">, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish
population, defies Islam and the Muslims…. Muslims will fight the Jews…for the
sake of Allah! I will assault and kill, assault and kill, assault and kill.”</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><i>Art promoting an aesthetic
peace between the Jewish State and its neighbors</i></span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pursuing peace is a central value
of Judaism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Hebrew word for peace, <i>shalom</i>,
is mentioned 237 times in the Hebrew Bible and scores of times in the Jewish
liturgy. Peace is offered in Israel’s
Declaration of Independence: “<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">We
extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of
peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of
cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own
land.” </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Despite virulent Islamist
anti-Semitism and genocidal aims, Israel continues to seek
peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, all political processes and
road maps from Oslo
to Obama are doomed to failure because the Arab conflict is not political but rather
an aesthetic problem that calls for an artistic solution. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my artwork <i>Aesthetic Peace Plan for the
Middle East </i>exhibited at the Jewish Museum of Prague<sup>22</sup> and on
the Internet at <a href="http://aestheticpeace.blogspot.com/">http://aestheticpeace.blogspot.com</a>, I propose an aesthetic
solution that creates a new metaphor for peace derived from Islamic art and
thought. </span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Islamic art
teaches Arabs to see their world as a continuous geometric pattern that extends
across North Africa and the Middle East.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They see Israel as a blemish that disrupts the
pattern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is viewed as an alien
presence that they have continually tried to eliminate through war, terrorism,
and political action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A perceptual shift
that can lead to a genuine peace can be derived from Islamic art and
thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In Islamic art, a uniform
geometric pattern is purposely disrupted by the introduction of a
counter-pattern that demonstrates that human creation is less than
perfect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since Islam believes that only
Allah creates perfection, rug weavers from Islamic lands intentionally weave a
patch of dissimilar pattern to break the symmetry of their rugs.</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Peace will come
from a fresh metaphor in which the Islamic world sees Israel’s existence as Allah’s
will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A shift in viewpoint where Israel
is perceived as the necessary counter-pattern in the overall pattern of the
Islamic world will usher in an era of peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The <i>Koran</i> (<i>Sura</i> 17:104) teaches that the ingathering of
the Jewish people into its historic homeland in the midst of the Islamic world
is the fulfillment of Mohammed’s prophecy: “And we said to the Children of
Israel, ‘scatter and live all over the world…and when the end of the world is
near we will gather you again into the Promised Land.’”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: blue;">Art
combining pride in roots with an overview of the world as seen by others</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The ingathering
of the Jewish people into their ancestral homeland of Israel at the
time that many other peoples are being dispersed into new host countries would
seem to be a countertrend to the powerful forces of globalization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the rebirth of the Jewish State and
the ingathering of the exiles plant roots that provide the sure footing
required to play the fast-moving globalization game.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sixty years after its rebirth, Israel
has emerged as a major player in the global world of hi-tech.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Vibrant Zionist
art draws on the creative tension and energetic interplay between subjugation
and freedom, between narrow unidirectional thought and open-ended systems
thought, between spiritual and material realms, between traditional values and
scientific and technological development, between war and peace, between hatred
and brotherhood, between local action and global outreach, and between being
rooted in one’s own culture and exploring others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This tension and interplay is the stimulus
and raw material for creating art to revitalize Jewish culture while offering
fresh directions for the growth of art globally.</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Art that</i>
<i>enables the mundane to rise up from the Land of Israel and touch the
Divine</i></span></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I draw on Rabbi
Yohanan's words in <i>Tractate Taanit</i> in the <i>Babylonian Talmud</i> to conclude
this essay. God declared: "I will not come to the heavenly Jerusalem
before coming to the earthly Jerusalem."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As Zionist artists, my wife and I have the great privilege to explore
the dynamic interface between aesthetic and spiritual energies revealed in our
earthly encounters with everyday life in the Land of Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The networked
world offers the blog as an ideal Jewish art form. A blog is a web log, an
active diary of a living process, rather than still life entombed in a golden
frame. Blogart is a new postdigital art form that my wife, artist Miriam
Benjamin, and I used to celebrate our 52nd year of marriage living in Petah
Tikva (Opening to Hope). We celebrated our love by collaborating on our
"Torah Tweets" blogart project <a href="http://bibleblogyourlife.blogspot.com/">http://bibleblogyourlife.blogspot.com</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">During each of
the 52 weeks of our 52nd year, we posted six photographs reflecting our life
together with a Torah tweet text that related the weekly Torah reading to our
lives, past and present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The seventh
photograph does not exist since Shabbat is a Non-Art Day on which we tune out,
turn off, unplug, and honor the Creator rather than our creations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The blog creates
a dialogue between images and text.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
images are observations of spirituality in our everyday life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The text is composed as "tweets,"
sentences of not more that 140 characters required by the Twitter social
networking website. 140 is the numerical value (<i>gematria</i>) of the Hebrew
word <i>hakel</i>, which means to gather people together to share a Torah
learning experience as in <i>Leviticus </i>8:3 and <i>Deuteronomy</i> 4:10.</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The conceptual background of the "Torah Tweets" blogart project are explored in my book <i>Photograph God: Creating a Spiritual Blog of Your Life </i><a href="http://photographgod.com/">http://photographgod.com</a>. <i> </i> </span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The introductory
quotations that we posted as the top blogspot gadget emphasize the centrality
of down-to-earth spirituality in Judaism from the viewpoints of Talmud scholar Rabbi
J. B. Soloveitchik, Hasidic Rebbe M. M. Schneerson, and American novelist E. L.
Doctorow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like instruments in an
orchestra, A. Y. Kook, Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel at the beginning of
the 20th century, sees individual actions combine into a symphony of Jews
acting together as a nation in their own land to empower the mundane to touch
the Divine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the essence of the
Zionist challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Judaism
does not direct its glaze upward but downward ... does not aspire to a heavenly
transcendence, nor does it seek to soar upon the wings of some abstract,
mysterious spirituality. It fixes its gaze upon concrete, empirical reality
permeating every nook and cranny of life. The marketplace, the street, the
house, the mall, the banquet hall, all constitute the backdrop of religious
life.<sup>23</sup> ///// It is not enough for the Jew to rest content with his
own spiritual ascent, the elevation of his soul in closeness to G-d, he must
strive to draw spirituality down into the world and into every part of it - the
world of his work and his social life - until not only do they not distract him
from his pursuit of G-d, but they become a full part of it.<sup>24</sup> /////
If there is a religious agency in our lives, it has to appear in the manner of
our times. Not from on high, but a revelation that hides itself in our culture,
it will be ground-level, on the street, it'll be coming down the avenue in the
traffic, hard to tell apart from anything else.<sup>25</sup> ///// The first
message that Moses chose to teach the Jewish people as they were about to enter
the Land of Israel was to fuse heaven to earth, to enable the mundane to rise
up and touch the Divine, the spiritual to vitalize the physical, not only as
individuals but as an entire nation." <sup>26</sup></span></span></b> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<br />
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i>Notes</i></b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">1 Daniel H. Pink, <i>A Whole New Mind: Moving from the
Information Age to the Conceptual Age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>(New York: Riverhead
Books, 2006).<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">2 Ori Z. Soltes, <i>Fixing the World: Jewish American
Painters in the Twentieth Century </i>(Hanover, NH: University Press of New England and Brandeis University
Press, 2003), p. 131</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">3<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> Winston
Churchill, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">History of the Second
World </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">War, Vol. V (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1951), p. 532.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">4 Thorleif Boman, <i>Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek</i> (New
York: Norton, 1960), p. 27.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">5 Mel Alexenberg, <i>The Future
of Art in a Postdigital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness </i>(Bristol
and Chicago: Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press, 2011). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">6 Menahem Alexenberg, <i>Dialogic
Art in a Digital World: Four Essays on Judaism and Contemporary Art</i> (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass House,
2008) [Hebrew].</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">7 Haim Finkelstein. "Lilien
and Zionism," <i>Assaph: Studies in Art History</i>, Section B, No.3
(1998) pp. 195-216<span style="color: #1f497d;">, a</span>ccessed 25 January
2009:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">http://www.tau.ac.il/arts/projects/PUB/assaph-art/assaph3/articles_assaph3/11finkelstein.pdf
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">and Gilya Gerda Schmidt, <i>The
Art and Artists of the Fifth Zionist Congress 1901: Heralds of a New Age </i>(Syracuse: Syracuse
University Press, 2003). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">8 Mel Alexenberg and Otto Piene,
introduction by Rudolf Arnheim, <i>LightsOROT </i>(Cambridge, MA: MIT Center
for Advanced Visual Studies and New York: Yeshiva University Museum, 1988).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">9 Mel Alexenberg, <i>Aesthetic
Experience in Creative Process</i> (Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar Ilan University
Press, 1981).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">10 Abraham Isaac Kook, <i>Abraham
Isaac Kook: Lights of Holiness</i>, translated by Ben Zion Bokser (New York: The Classics
of Western Spirituality. Paulist Press, 1978), p. 216. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">11 Joseph B. Soloveitchik, <i>Halakhic
Man</i>, translated by Lawrence Kaplan (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication
Society, 1983), pp. 99, 108.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">12 Abraham Isaac Kook, <i>Rav A.
Y. Kook: Selected Letters</i>, translated by Tzvi Feldman (Ma’aleh Adumim,
Israel: Ma’aliot Publications of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe, 1986), p.191.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">13 Kook.<i> Rav A. Y. Kook:
Selected Letters</i>, p. 193.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">14 Arthur Green, <i>Seek My Face, Speak My Name </i>(Northvale,
NJ and London: Jason Aronson, 1992), p. 138.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">15 Arthur C. Danto, <i>Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual
Arts in Post-historical Perspective</i> (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux,
1992). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">16 Mel Alexenberg (editor), <i>Educating Artists for the
Future: Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology, and Culture </i>(Bristol and Chicago:
Intellect Books/University of Chicago
Press, 2008).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">17 Mel Alexenberg and Miriam Benjamin, “Legacy Thrones:
Intergenerational Collaboration in Creating Public Art” in Angela M. La Porte (editor), <i>Community
Connections: Intergenerational Links in Art Education </i>(Reston, VA:
National Art Education Association, 2004), pp. 115-128.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">18 Theodore Herzl, <i>Old New Land</i>, translated by Lotta
Levensohn (Princeton: M. Wiener, 1997), p. 262. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Original German edition published as <i>Altneuland</i>
in 1902.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">19 Abraham Isaac Kook, <i>Orot</i>,
translated by Bezalel Naor (Northvale, NJ and London: Jason Aronson, 1993), p. 89.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">20 Kook, <i>Rav A. Y. Kook:
Selected Letters</i>, p. 239.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">21 Menachem Mendel Schneerson, <i>Toward a Meaningful Life:
The Wisdom of the Rebbe</i>, adapted by Simon Jacobson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New
York: William Morrow, 1995, 191.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">22 Michaela Hajkova, <i>Mel
Alexenberg: Cyberangels – Aesthetic Peace Plan for the Middle East</i> (Prague: Robert Guttmann
Gallery, Jewish Museum of Prague, 2004) [exhibition catalog]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">23 Soloveitchik, <i>Halakhic Man</i>.
p. 92, 94.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">24 Menachem M. Schneerson, <i>Torah
Studies</i>, adapted by Jonathan Sacks. London: Lubavitch Foundation, 1986, p.
320.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">25 E. L. Doctorow, <i>City of God</i>.
New York: Plume Book/Penguin Putnam, 2001, p. 254.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">26 Gideon Weitzman, <i>Sparks of
Light</i>, Northvale, NJ and Jerusalem: Jason Aronson, 1999, p. 248.</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: blue;">About the Artist</span> </i></span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Mel
Alexenberg is professor emeritus at Ariel University where he taught the
courses: “Art in Jewish Thought” and “Judaism and Zionism: Values and
Roots.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is former professor of art
and education at Columbia University and Bar Ilan University, head of the art
department at Pratt Institute, dean at New World School of the Arts in Miami, head
of Emunah College School of the Arts in Jerusalem, and research fellow at MIT’s
Center for Advanced Visual Studies. </i></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>His artworks exploring digital
technology and global systems are in the collections of more than forty museums
worldwide, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to the Jewish Museum
in Prague to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </i></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>He is author of </i><i></i>The Future
of Art in a Postdigital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness <i>and</i>
Educating Artists for the Future <i>(both published by Intellect
Books/University of Chicago Press), </i>Aesthetic Experience in Creative
Process<i> (Bar Ilan University Press), </i>Photograph God: Creating a
Spiritual Blog of Your Life <i>(CreateSpace), and in Hebrew </i>Dialogic Art in
a Digital World: Four Essays on Judaism and Contemporary Art (<i>Jerusalem:
Rubin Mass House).</i></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Alexenberg blogs at: http://artiststory.com, http://future-of-art.com, http://blibleblogyourlife.blogspot.com, http://zionismandart.blogspot.com.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Website: www.melalexenberg.com <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></b></div>
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Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-24412420636173265072010-06-16T23:35:00.000-07:002015-06-22T00:12:50.626-07:00Media Golem: Between Prague and ZKM<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b> by Michael Bielicky</b></span> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfp5XY1EbQ-OagTNiXkpNdNpZ5SuMvhdx3IHIFTTdESZVg8vAF6ugEVGTnYg_DSOpV9WDR2JC1bdziLXcDm2uGtW5gcpYUhIID24ca5SjeFziCECQ5Y-hCBLiCa3bqc21m_nHSHin1Zg4/s1600/zkm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="318" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfp5XY1EbQ-OagTNiXkpNdNpZ5SuMvhdx3IHIFTTdESZVg8vAF6ugEVGTnYg_DSOpV9WDR2JC1bdziLXcDm2uGtW5gcpYUhIID24ca5SjeFziCECQ5Y-hCBLiCa3bqc21m_nHSHin1Zg4/s400/zkm.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michael Bielicky, Norman M. Klien and Mel Alexenberg at ZKM</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">When I was four or five years old, my mother took me to visit the famous Old-New Synagogue of Prague. I ran around and suddenly climbed up onto a big chair and sat on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A group of men nervously hurried to remove me from the chair. Many years later, I found out that it was the chair of the great Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the MaHaRaL of Prague. The synagogue stringently observed a rule that nobody should sit on this honored chair after the esteemed rabbi passed away four centuries ago. Perhaps it was this early experience that indirectly shaped my artistic interests in virtual environments. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">A few years later, I read about Rabbi Loew in the chapter “Golem from Prague, Golem from Rechovot” in Gerschon Scholem’s book <i>Judaica</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rabbi was a great scholar and mystic who possessed an encyclopedic knowledge. He is both the spiritual and biological forefather of the renowned aerodynamics and astrophysics expert Theodor von Karman. Von Karman recognized Rabbi Loew as the first genius of applied mathematics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other sources, I learned that Rabbi Loew was not only credited with having created the Golem, an artificial human being, but was honored for his experiments with the camera obscura and with the magic lantern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These experiments impressed Emperor Rudolf II so much that he invited him to join a circle of alchemists, astronomers and artists whose members included scientists Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe and artist Giuseppe Archimboldo who painted human heads made of fruits, vegetables and sea creatures. It is said that Rabbi Loew accomplished a miracle one night as Rudolf II was seeking him out in his home. The rabbi transformed his house into a palace by using his magic lantern to project painted pictures of the interior of the Prague castle Hradschin onto his own empty walls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This gave the emperor the illusion that he was in a palace. One can, in this context, speak of a medieval virtual reality artwork.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I was seven years old at the end of April 1961, two weeks after the historical moment when the first human flew in space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My older brother and I were standing on the curbstone on the main street in our Prague neighborhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An open limousine suddenly appeared with Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin waving to the crowds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a small-sized person in a dense crowd not knowing in which direction to look, I missed seeing this hero of all humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although I missed seeing him, I felt the vibrant energies of the cheering crowds for a long time afterwards.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Four years later, cheering crowds standing along the curb greeted Pope Paul VI waving from an open limousine driving down Fifth Avenue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the crowd was a Korean man who had recently arrived in New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was holding the first black and white portable video camera shooting the scene. This young man was destined to become the father of video art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His name was Nam June Paik.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had the good fortune to be his student twenty years later only because of my escape to the West in 1969 after the Soviet tanks invaded the former Czechoslovakia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">In 1981, I drove a horse and open carriage down Fifth Avenue into Central Park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After studying medicine for several years on graduating from high school in Germany, I realized that my future was not being a physician like my father and brother, but rather in the realm of visual media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I moved to New York and lived in the Westbeth art community on the Hudson River.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to pay my rent, I earned a license as a horse-cab driver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Perhaps I should start somewhere else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are in the year 1942 at my parents’ wartime wedding. They are wearing yellow stars on their chests, kissing their parents goodbye on the run, not knowing that they would never see them again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a small boy, I could not understand how my friends had grandparents and even great-grandparents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had none.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I was 12, I first learned about the Holocaust madness that had exterminated my parents’ entire family because they were Jews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was not surprising that my parents did not speak to me about this unspeakable horror until I was 12, since we continued to live in the anti-Semitic environment of the former post-Stalinist Czechoslovakia where it was best not to be identified as a Jew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">In my home, the integration of art and science flowed naturally since my father was both a musician and scientist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had survived the war years with my mother as a musician with false identification papers often playing piano at parties where the Nazis were celebrating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the war, he studied medicine and became a medical scientist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would come home after a long day at work and play piano while I sat beside him listening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My father was also a composer who composed Czech tangos and rumbas which were released as recordings and played on the radio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Ironically, my Jewish identify was awakened after arriving in West Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I changed overnight from a young Communist Pioneer to a western hippie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I grew long hair, wore a goat-fur jacket embroidered with colorful flowers, started to socialize within the Jewish community of Dusseldorf, and joined a Zionist group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The true reason for joining this group had little to do with leaving for Israel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It gave me the opportunity to be accepted into a marijuana-smoking hippie circle of friends that helped transform the trauma of emigration into a positive experience isolating me from the brown shirt mentality of the older generation of Germans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was even more difficult for my parents to relate to a generation with a Nazi past that included the murderers of their parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember sitting with my parents in our new home in Germany watching the moon landing on our Czech black and white TV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This moment awaked in me the power of a real-time media experience.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">When I arrived for the first time in my life in Israel in 1983, I had little idea about the Jewish State and the Jewish religion. I traveled to the Holy Land with two friends for a vacation in Eilat. After few days at this Red Sea resort town, I decided to travel without my friends to Jerusalem. I took a bus planning to stop on the way in Sodom on the Dead Sea to visit a friend of my brother who worked as a dermatologist in a clinic there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a simple map of Israel and somehow I thought Sodom was a small town. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the bus arrived in Ein Gedi, I asked when we would arrive in Sodom. With a smile in his face, the man sitting beside me explained that we have passed Sodom an hour ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Panicking, I got off the bus and found myself in a silent, peaceful oasis. I checked in to a youth hostel and spent the night at Ein Gedi. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next morning, I decided not to go back to Sodom but to continue on my trip to Jerusalem. I went to the bus stop and sat on a bench.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sat there one hour, two hours, three hours, until a man passed by and asked me what I was doing there. I answered that I was waiting for a bus to Jerusalem. He smiled and told me there will be no buses at all during the coming few days because of the Pesach holiday and that the only way to get there is to use a sherut-taxi. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had no idea at that time what Pesach was, but I followed his advice. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally arriving in Jerusalem was for me an exciting moment. I checked into a youth hostel where I met a young American college student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we walked together to the Kotel, the Wailing Wall, a Chasidic man walked by and inquired if we were Jews. When we answered in the affirmative, he asked where we planned to spend the Seder. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had no idea what a Seder was. Then the Chassid told us if we would come to the Wall in a few hours he would arrange for us to spend the Seder with an Orthodox family. He asked if we prefer a Hebrew or English speaking family. I answered that I would prefer an English speaking family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My new found friend argued that he speaks enough Hebrew to understand everything and that he is willing to translate for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few hours later we met the same Chassid who took us to Mea Shearim, one of the oldest and the most Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem. We arrived at a rabbi's home filled with many children speaking Yiddish. Since I speak German, it was easy for me to communicate with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end, it was me who translate for my friend.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I had no idea that twelve years later in 1995, I would create the first Internet art project using GPS technology. The title of the work was <i>Exodus</i>. I walked for four days through the desert tracing the steps of Moses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People worldwide could follow my trek. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This performance artwork was my metaphor for the modern exodus of humankind into to the time-space realm of the Internet.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">There were earlier fascinating media experiences in my Prague childhood that had impact on my work as a media artist – frequenting the cinema, developing photographs in my neighbor’s makeshift darkroom, immersion in a 360<sup>o</sup> panoramic film happening, seeing early time-base imagery in a technical museum, and creating an instant camera anticipating Polaroid. There were two movie theaters near where we lived and my friend and I would go there nearly every Sunday for the morning matinee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We saw Karel Zeman’s fantastical films which are often shown today in university film schools and new media departments as early examples of compositing visualization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In contemporary terminology, it’s called a “virtual set” in which technology allows the combination of actual actors with virtual reality creating a virtual setting and even individual characters. Zeman was a pioneer with this technology, and later I became interested in it as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I remember another early experience with film when my father took me to the panoramic cinema at the Holesovice amusement park. Inside a round building there was a circular screen on which was projected a 360˚ panoramic film from a Russian projection system. Spectators didn’t sit as in a normal cinema but stood in the middle watching the changing view from an airplane. I remember that the plane began to bank making people lose their balance and fall to the ground. This was a powerful experience. In the same fair grounds in 1891, the artist Marold created a panorama, an image where reality and fiction were blurred, where three-dimensional objects emerged from a 360<sup>o</sup> panoramic painting. This interaction between reality and fiction later became one of the main features of my work. My friend and I made a make-believe "camera" from a cardboard box in which we placed pictures we had drawn in advance. We would go to the park and ask people walking by if we could photograph them. If someone agreed, we would click the “shutter release” and pull from the “camera” one of the pictures to give to the person we had “photographed.” My childhood invention was the “precursor” to the Polaroid camera. A few years later, the son of my parents’ friends from New York came for a visit with an actual Polaroid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn’t at all surprised.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">When I was fifteen years old, I saw what appeared to be an action movie in the making hiking with my friend in the countryside not far from Prague.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the horizon, hundreds of tanks where rolling over the hills in the far distance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we realized that what we were seeing on that summer morning in 1968 was not a movie, but the beginning of the invasion of the Russian army into Czechoslovakia, we ran down the road tearing down all the direction signs to make it difficult for the invading soldiers to find their way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This image will forever remain etched in my mind along with the horrible feeling of being helpless and powerless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I was fortunate to have been born in Prague, a city permeated by the myth of the Golem, a pre-robotic being created by mystical algorithms four centuries ago invoked by Rabbi Judah Loew, the spiritual father of Norbert Wiener’s cybernetic theory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prague is the city in which the Czech word “robot” was conceived, the Golem was born, and Kafka told the tale of the metamorphosis of a young man into a giant cockroach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also the city in which the first interactive cinema, “Kinoautomat,” and the phenomenon of “Laterna Magika,” the fluid transition between the stage and projected film, were invented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Publishing the first illustrated book for children in 1658, the visionary Czech educator Comenius pioneered in developing a system of media pedagogy of great significance in new media studies.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">My high school in Düsseldorf was near the illustrious Art Academy. The Academy radiated out to the community at large, so I felt part of what was going on there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t help but notice the reverberations being sent out by the life pulsating there. Near the Academy were a number of cafés and bars where students and professors congregated. I spent a lot of time in one such local hangout that was named Creamcheese. Its interior was created by members of the ZERO group, Otto Piene, Günter Mack and Heinz Ücker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was later installed in Düsseldorf’s Museum Kunst Palast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This environment had a strong impact on me without my being entirely aware of everything that was going on there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In our neighborhood, I often saw Joseph Beuys. He was indeed larger-than-life, and not just because of his height and hat, but because he drove a Bentley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The strength of his personality and work wasn’t clear to me until two years before I entered the Academy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I became aware of the significance of the art scene in Düsseldorf when I saw a video installation for the first time in my life in the city’s Kunsthalle. Today, it’s considered a seminal piece. It was created by Shigeko Kubota, Nam June Paik’s wife, and was based on Marcel Duchamp’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nude Descending a Staircase</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although I appreciated the artistic energies in Dussledorf, I decided to study medicine that I enjoyed for three years and thought that this was going to be my profession. When I realized that the life of a physician was not what I really wanted for myself, I left medical school and left Dusseldorf for New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was always grateful for the ongoing support for my quest offered by my brother, Peter, himself a physician and collector of Czech avant-garde art.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Recently, I was shocked to find out that my former anatomy professor was a Nazi criminal who was the assistant of the monster doctor Augus Hirt who did experiments on live prisoners in the concentration camps during the World War II.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The name of my former professor was Anton Kiesselbach and in the trial against him in the middle of the sixties he was freed because lack of proofs. It was a typical trial in that time in West Germany where a large number of the judges had themselves served Nazi Germany. No wonder that most of such trials ended with acquittals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">When I first came to New York City in 1978, the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city was liberating for me, even though my existence there was very tenuous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was important to me that no one asked who I was or where I came from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It didn’t matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being in New York gave me a burst of energy that dissipated when I relocated at the edge of a California redwood forest, in the beautiful mountains around Santa Cruz.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this perfect paradise where I did not have anything particular to do, I felt no motivation to do anything at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I soon realized I needed the vibrant energy and existential challenge of a big city and returned to New York to begin intensive work in photography.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A turning point came when I definitively decided to pursue photography as a profession. This came from meeting New York photographer Frederic Cantor, whose work I admired. He didn’t know it, but for me at that time he was a real guru. I tried to imitate his work in my New York photographs, created under Cantor’s influence, and helped me eventually get accepted to the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I returned to Germany to work for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Monochrom</i> magazine, which offered me the freedom to create a wide variety of photographs that it published.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The magazine was very progressive for its time, sometimes even provocative, both in content and design. I mostly did portraits of friends, people I was acquainted with, strong personalities for the most part. The photos were pseudo-staged in often-bizarre situations that were created without a lot of prior preparation. The magazine soon folded. I suppose it was too experimental for its time. During this period, however, I never really considered myself a professional photographer even though it paid my rent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I first applied to the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts in 1983. Although I was not accepted, something positive did come out of it as Joseph Beuys organized a special exhibition of those who were rejected. He was already so famous that he could invite the press. This exhibition of the rejected threw into doubt the very social status of the “Artist” and “Art.” The following year, I was accepted into Bernd Becher’s photography atelier at a time that photography was starting to become accepted on equal footing with the classical fine arts. My schoolmates, who continued with photography, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth and Thomas Ruff, later became successful artists. For me, the work in Becher’s atelier was boring. The conceptualism he encouraged did absolutely nothing for me although I appreciated it in Becher’s work. However, I found the work his students were producing banal and foreign to me. I met Nam June Paik by accident at the opening of an exhibition. I told him I’d like to study under him and he didn’t ask for any further details about me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He just said, “You are my student.” When someone came up to him, he introduced me as his new student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was really lucky because it was not so easy to get into his atelier. He did not take everyone. When I began to study with Paik, a new period began for me. I felt like I had found my element working with video. Outwardly, he was very humble. He was even skeptical about his own work. But looking back now, I realize that maybe this was a tactic of his. What impressed me about Paik though was his lack of pretension and his interest in everyday things. I think that’s why students liked him so much. He never played the star and you could speak to him about anything. Most people do not know this, but there would be situations when if he liked a student’s work he would simply buy it. He didn’t do this because he was collecting these objects but so that he could use it in his own installations. He considered it a form of partnership. He wasn’t misusing his students’ work. For me of course what was most important about Paik was his openness with his students. That was the greatest lesson for me, the one I identified with the most. I try to maintain this sort of openness with my own students. I consider them more as partners who I can learn from despite their age or limited experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">At the Academy, Joseph Beuys had created a space he called Freie Internationale Universität (FIU). It was a gesture on his part to represent a clear alternative to academic seclusion, an open space within a closed space. Beuys of course always had his devotees around him. My friend the Bolivian painter Ricardo Peredo and I began to associate with Beuys and his group. He was such a charismatic personality that he attracted us to him. On the other hand, we felt uncomfortable with his students who acted like members of a difficult to define sect. When Beuys spoke, it was like they were listening to a sermon. Beuys’s lectures themselves were incredibly inspirational and they forced us to think about the role of the artist and his work in a social context. He propagated a completely different type of artistic work. He thought the artist should create “social sculptures,” that is, the artist’s work should be focused on mending the world. I still mull this idea over today and always return to it and try to discuss it with my students as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">My video-installations evolved into video-sculptures at the end of my studies in Düsseldorf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The difference between the two is not exactly clear. The term “video-sculpture” didn’t exist until it was used for the first time in 1986 (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Videoskulptur</i> in German) by the curator Wulf Herzogenrath for an exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein. I guess one distinction is that video-installations use monitors as the central element. In a video-sculpture, the object itself is so central that if the monitors are switched off, it still can be a meaningful artwork. I created <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Menorah</i> at the end of my studies without having any idea what sort of response it eventually would have. It had small TV monitors at the ends of each of seven braches of a large steel candelabrum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the monitors’ screens, video images of flickering flames danced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These virtual flames emanated from a hidden video transmitter sending spiritual messages to antennas topping each of the seven monitors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Menorah</span></i><span style="color: black;"> directly referenced my Jewish identity in a German context. The first place in Germany that provided me some comfortable surroundings was the Düsseldorf Jewish community. However, it took me a long while before I was ready to openly and publicly acknowledge my Jewishness. The first time I publicly displayed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Menorah</i> at the Academy, I placed a ring around it made of defunct fire extinguishers. They weren’t so easy to find because at the time everyone in Germany had the Baader-Meinhof Gang and other terrorist groups still fresh in their minds and their bombs were made out of old fire extinguishers. Nevertheless, I wanted to show the installation like this. I wanted to say that these old extinguishers were like old Nazis who no longer had the strength to snuff the flame of the menorah. This was the only time I used this literal interpretation when exhibiting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Menorah</i>. Actually, it was David Galloway, the noted curator and art critic writing for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">International Herald Tribune</i>, who convinced me that the object was powerful enough on its own. The work was in great demand. I won a number of awards for it and it went from exhibition to exhibition. Actually, there exist two copies of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Menorah</i>. One was bought from me by ZKM [Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie] in Karlsruhe as the very first work for its collection (so it was given identification number 001). The second was commissioned in 2001 by the Jewish Museum in Berlin at the architect Daniel Libeskind’s request.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Otto Piene, a German artist who headed MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies, was invited by the Düsseldorf Art Academy to judge the works of graduating students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking at my <i>Menorah</i>, I attempted to explain to him what a menorah was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He interrupted me to explain that he knew all about menorahs from his collaboration with Mel Alexenberg in creating a major exhibition of electronic art at MIT for Yeshiva University Museum in New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He gave me a gift of the catalog for the 1988 show <i>LightsOROT: Spiritual Dimensions of the Electronic Age</i> with its introduction by Rudolf Arnheim and a dialog "Light, Vision and Art in Judaism" between Mel Alexenberg and Yeshiva University president Rabbi Norman Lamm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This catalog was to be an important influence on my thinking about both Judaism and new media art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I just had returned to Prague from Thailand in 2002 where I was establishing a new media department of the university, I received a phone call from Mel Alexenberg.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told me the director of Prague's Center for Contemporary Art told him that he must meet Michael Bielicky after visiting the Otto Piene's retrospective exhibition at the Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As soon as I heard that he was the Mel Alexenberg of <i>LightsOROT</i>, I rushed over to his hotel to meet him. We have been close friends and colleagues since. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Shortly after the fall of the Communist system in Eastern Europe in 1990, I was invited to return to Prague to found the first department of new media art in the region.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I spoke to my mentor Nam June Paik about the offer of a professorship in new media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, he told me “Go for it! Good luck!” and spontaneously gave me 5,000 German Marks to get the new department started.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With this money and some additional sponsorship, I purchased two video cameras and three video editing systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This very basic video equipment was the basis for creating a lively and creative department in a cubistic villa next to the main Art Academy building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the first years, I worked with my students on some early communications art projects like IPI (International Painting Interactive) in collaboration with students in many other countries who collectively created a virtual painting using a graphics tablet and modem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were also involved in a pioneering interactive television project (Piazza Virtuale) which was presented at the 1992 Documenta IX in Kassel, Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The seminal philosopher of media, Vilem Flusser, inspired my students with his highly original lectures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After his tragic death, we organized a series of “Vilem Flusser Symposia” in collaboration with Prague’s Goethe Institute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">During this period in Prague, I developed projects using locative media such as global positioning systems (GPS) that were presented at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Intelligent Mailman</i> at Ars Electronica was the first GPS artwork ever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I integrated GPS and Internet technologies in a performance artwork that electronically transmitted my wandering through the Negev Desert. I also created virtual environments at the Babeinsberg High-Tech Center in Berlin and at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karsruhe.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Living at the intersections of Czech and German cultures was and continues to be an amazing trigger for creative thought and action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Switching time-space while reflecting on one’s encounter with changing environments is a great teacher for a creative person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt that the new found freedom in Eastern Europe produced a level of energy and creative potential at the time that was much stronger than what was happening in Western Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I traveled extensively throughout the former Communist world between 1990 and 2000 as advisor to the Soros Centers for Contemporary Arts creating educational departments and centers for new media art from Bucharest, Odessa, and Moscow, to Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I began the new millennium lecturing on new media arts in Thailand and founding with Francis Wittenberger the New Media Arts Festival in Bangkok.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My experience in Asia led me to realize how much more dynamic this part of the world was in comparison to the more staid culture of Western Europe.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">The challenge in educating future generations in the field of digital arts is the rapidly changing conditions that make today’s media theory stale tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that ideas we taught a decade ago are irrelevant today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps, the most significant change is the democratization of video and computer technologies that makes everyone a potential digital artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The aim to create Soros media centers in Eastern Europe modeled after the ZKM Center for Art and Media and MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies and Media Lab required heavy funding for sophisticated equipment and facilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The concentration of digital art production in these centers has given way to powerful media tools that are cheap enough and compact enough for anyone to create serious digital artworks in their home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prestigious media art festivals like Ars Electronica in Linz and Tranmediale in Berlin are having to reinventing themselves to claim to continue be innovative, risky, and fresh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">What is the role of the artist in society in the 21<sup>st</sup> century is the primary question?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to completely rethink stereotypic images of the artist and the concept of the art school that are becoming obsolete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps art schools can be replaced by mobile educational units that adapt to alternative cultural environments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to acknowledge the hundreds of millions of pictures produced worldwide daily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This enormous inflation of images is radically changing our sensibilities. It is causing cultural pollution of our environment that may be as great a threat to our mind and souls as physical pollution is to our bodies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does it make sense to educate our students to produce more and more images?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps we need to encourage the practice of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cultural ecology </i>by creating an ecological movement against image pollution of our environment like those acting against chemical pollution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Students in a post-digital age are already creating new forms of dematerialized art – net art, locative media, data and information visualization, telematics – that reaches into public spaces globally and even beyond our planet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">My 16 years teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague convinced me that the key to educating future digital artists is not the quality of the school, it is not the professor, but the quality of the student who gets accepted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Prague, I was fortunate to always be able to choose the best of the best.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consequently, those students were from the beginning more my partners than students. My students in Prague were invited and won awards in such new media art festivals as Ars Electronica in Linz or Transmediale in Berlin where they were not considered as students but as professional artists!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I guess I was lucky again to be appointed as a full-time professor and head of the Digital Arts Department at the University of Arts and Design in Karlsruhe, Germany. The fact that the school is situated at the same giant building as the ZKM Center for Art and Media is a great advantage for the students. They can see world-class media art shows, attend events with top international performers, and hear lectures by some of the most important artists and theoreticians in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After 16 years in Prague, I moved from a dreamy and poetic city to a more rational and functional Karlsruhe. This was my third emigration between the Czech Republic and Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Although primarily conceptual in orientation, my department at the Art Academy in Prague was also a technological<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>laboratory in which there was a lots of freedom given to the students who, in turn, were expected to assume individual responsibility. Most students understood this challenge. Others misused it to their disadvantage. I believe that it is important to work with the students on highly innovative, challenging, and risky issues. My experience taught me that project-centered study motivates students more and is generally a more efficient educational methodology than more formal methods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has also taught me the significance of being open to learning from teachers and colleagues through ongoing dialogue. My long-term dialogue and friendship with key thinkers and artists, such as Nam June Paik, Vilem Flusser, Woody Vasulka, Mel Alexenberg, and Peter Weibel, has enriched me and facilitated my seeing alternative perspectives on life and art </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Students should be encouraged to develop the need to break out of institutionalized frameworks. The young generation should learn to take risks rather than always follow their teachers. Often students exhibit fresh visions than exceed those of their professors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is our duty to support their visions even when our egos are sometimes hurt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They should ask if the so-called art system (art school, gallery, museum, art critic, curator, art magazine, art fair, etc.) is the right framework for a digital artist at the beginning of the 21<sup>st</sup> century knowing very well how much this system is corrupted where often financial interests dominate and manipulate the art market independent of the quality of the artworks.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">My wife, Kamila Bielicka Richter, and I collaborated on a project that we call <i>Falling</i> <i>Life</i>. It operates completely outside of the art system. It is an ongoing project that was introduced for the first time in Berlin in August 2005. This urban screening project needs neither a curator nor a gallery. It does not need a fixed place or access to the electric power. We are equipped with a car, a laptop, a compact powerful projector, and a small power generator. With this very mobile equipment, we are able to create an instant presence in the urban landscape. We transform city architecture into dynamic and living organisms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without any on-site preparation and without any permits, we operate a kind of guerilla-style projection. Within less than ten minutes, we can illuminate giant buildings with our artwork, reaching huge audiences that would probably never walk into a gallery or museum. We use a minimalist language of constantly appearing and disappearing pictograms. The moving icons often represent the collective reality of our interconnected globalized world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Falling Life </i>was projected during the Czech Culture Festival in Berlin, as a subversive public interference in Ars Electronica in Linz, at ZKM in Karlsruhe, at the DOX Center for Contemporary Art in Prague, and in Barcelona, Bangkok, and Jerusalem. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">We projected on the façade of the grotesquely gigantic building built by the brutal Romanian dictator Caucescu in Bucharest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the fall of Communism and the murder of Caucescu, the building of the dictatorial regime is being shared by the parliament of a democratic government and a museum of contemporary art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was an exhibition in the museum of social realist paintings glorifying the dictator which after his fall looked absurd and preposterous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boorish parliamentarians did not get the satire of these kitsch artworks and accused the curators of promoting Communist propaganda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it is a sign of Isaiah’s prophetic vision to beat swords into plowshares that the buildings of evil regimes are being transformed into centers for creative arts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The media department of the Dusseldorf Art Academy where I studied with Nam June Paik was housed in former Gestapo headquarters and I currently teach in an enormous building shared by my art school and ZKM Center for Art and Media that was a Nazi munitions factory where slave laborers manufactured torpedoes. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I was invited by the Jewish Museum Prague in 2005 to develop a project for the Guttmann Gallery, its gallery of contemporary art. With a small team of collaborators I developed a digital art project <i>This Year in Jerusalem</i>. This title updates the millennia-old Jewish prayer "Next year in Jerusalem." I aimed at virtually fulfilling visitors' dream – to be in Jerusalem now and not next year. I installed custom-made motion capture tracking technology in the gallery space. This device tracked people in the gallery space and defined their changing positions while creating a three dimensional representations of them called voxels (volumetric pixels).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I simultaneously displayed on the wall of the gallery a live moving real-time motion image of activity at the Jerusalem Kotel, the Western Wall. When visitors entered the gallery space, they saw their shadow images (voxel representations) moving within the live Kotel image. They digitally mingled with the crowd at the Kotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gallery became a dynamic image experience merging Prague and Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">My wife Kamila and I having been working for the apost several years on a series of projects dealing with what we call Data Driven Narratives. In 2007, we created <i>Falling Times</i>, an ironic translation machine for news. <i>Falling Times</i> is an everlasting and growing real-time news translation machine representing permanently appearing and disappearing information about our times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Falling Times</i> refers to the extensive world of InfoPollution in which we live. The InfoSociety has created a new kind of consumer - the InfoConsumer!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In our visualization, we reduce the content to headlines and key words that appear in the news most frequently. These reduced news items are translated into a dynamic pictogram language that attempts to be universal and instantly understandable. Online users have the opportunity to define collectively the meaning associated with each icon we created and decide what kind of news will be finally displayed. The information industry produces less and less meaning while creating a pattern that decorates our daily life and persuades us that we are connected to reality. This project was shown around the world, from New York, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Sydney, Berlin, to Prague.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was both displayed indoors and in outdoor public spaces as gigantic projections on building facades.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">In 2010, we developed the artwork <i>Garden of Error and Decay </i>that<i> </i>tells the continuous story of current world disasters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The authors' input joins with Twitter users' tweets and stock exchange information to influence the story telling. Every time a disaster related topic is discussed in Twitter, it becomes displayed in the form of an animated pictogram. Users have the opportunity to either eliminate or multiply the disaster scenes with a shooting devise. However, it is not the user that has the power to decide what really happens. Like in real life, the narrative is driven by stock exchange dynamics that dictate whether it goes up or down. This project is not a film, not a game, and not a nonlinear interactive story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>The Garden of Error and Decay </i>reflects on the networked media reality of the 21st century that seems to have increasing impact on our perception of the world.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">We believe that real time data like the news, Twitter feed or stock exchange data are becoming a new element in global story telling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This global newsfeed in dialogue with the authors and users influence the narration. In that sense, we are facing a radically new format which still has to be explored more deeply.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Inspired by Mel Alexenberg's term "Postdigital Age," I organized in November 2010 a small international conference at the ZKM Center for Art and Media that I called "Postdigital Narratives." (See video of the conference at http://vimeo.com/18704694.) The participants Mel Alexenberg, Timothy Druckery, Norman Klein, Adam Rafinski and Michael Rybakov discussed the humanization of today's digitized culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alexenberg spoke about how <i>Midrash</i>, two thousand years of creative narratives designed to elucidate the biblical narrative, spins out stories between the lines of the biblical text to reveal messages hidden in the white spaces between the Hebrew letters. This conference inaugurated a new Institute of Postdigital Narrative that I now head at the University of Art and Design in Karlsruhe.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: black;">Michael Bielicky is professor of Digital Media Art at the University of Art and Design in Karlsruhe, Germany, and head of the Institute for Visual Media at ZKM Center for Art and Media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was born in Prague in 1954 and immigrated to West Germany in 1969. After studying medicine in Dusseldorf, he studied photography and worked as a horse cab driver in New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He earned his Master of Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts Dusseldorf under Nam-June Paik in 1989. He was then Paik's assistant for 5 years until he returned to the Czech Republic as founder and professor of the New Media Art Department at the Academy of Fine Arts Prague.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2006, he accepted his current professorship in Karlsruhe. </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: black;">He has participated in numerous international exhibitions, festivals and symposia using communication, navigation, video and VR technologies. His recent artwork uses real time web-based information technologies in public spaces develped in collaboration with ZKM Karlsruhe, Ars Electronica Linz, High Tech Center Berlin-Babelsberg, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His innovative artwork has been exhibited in Centre Pompidou Paris, MoMA New York, National Gallery Prague, Kunsthaus Zurich, Jewish Museum Berlin, Sao Paulo Biennale Brazil, Seoul Biennale South Korea, Museum for Contemporary Art Warsaw, Kunstmuseum<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Düsseldorf, Gallery for Contemporary Arts Milan, Jewish Museum Prague, and State Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i></span></div>
Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-31443227630238280422010-06-16T23:18:00.000-07:002015-06-22T00:14:21.019-07:00You Can Take the Artist out of Zion, but You Can’t Take Zion out of the Artist<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">by Shalom Gorewitz</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Everything in my artwork is real, but none of it is true. The empty spaces, blanks, ellipses are as expressive as the visuals. The silence is louder than sound. It’s always about emptying, which requires fullness. The frantic sequencing is meant to describe something slow. The long, almost photographic takes, are about speed. What might appear as confusion or ambiguity is carefully planned but not logical. I’m the interface between machines, the analog puppet with a digital master, pre-robotic prototype artist for the post-human era. I tickle the potentiometer and colors emerge; I pull a plug and rest. Water is not only water, it’s flow, it’s signal. Waves are not simply waves, but visualization of physics. It’s not the tree moving, it’s the wind. It’s not the highway, it’s heat, gravity, death. The mind melts while trying to make sense of it. Symbols, metaphors, puns, analogies trick us into meaning. Artworks come with code cards- red means, blue signifies, black describes, green is the new blue, yellow the new orange. The audience wants a story from the artist. Oh, yes, this is Kabalistic, see how all of the energy flows through these morphs and transformations. Vaguely Jewish symbols and alpha wave music. Can you see how this might be healing? Think about having it on your wall to catch new details. Think about telling your friends the story I told you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What a story it is! Based on personal memories of things that have, might have, or could have happened. The stops and starts where the viewer has time to fill in. This is what the world looks like to me. Landscapes become personal. If I can tell the same story in different ways, it is no longer the same story. If I don’t care about the boundaries between fact and fiction, you shouldn’t either. This is a word journey, a roller coaster of verbiage. Over time it rises and falls; there are thrills and the anticipation of thrills. There is a delight in the certainty of uncertainty, of going along for the ride, just because you never know what might happen next. If you’re beginning to drift off into thinking about sex or something else important, I might also. Should I recall the muses, the mysterious ones, strangers who inspired the narratives? The one I shouldn’t have left in Tel Aviv? The one the goat will lead me to? Ghazals, Sufi songs for the Beloved; the Song of Songs, the Shechinah, momentarily physical, Solomon’s confusion of desire and faith. This is a template to explore sensuality, romance, and fantasy that is at once earthy and mystical. Religious pornography. We literally go to the tavern after the annual reading. We must eat, drink, dance with abandon in dedication to the divine. For one Friday night it doesn’t matter if it’s Shlomo Carlbach, Shefa Gold or the Rolling Stones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Everything in my artwork is true, but none of it is real. It is not painting or sculpture, some have called it anti-Art since it has no commercial value. In the beginning I was driven with the passion that I could have such high frequencies and sequencing that the work might explode the TV set. On my cable show, Raster (1977-78) I realized I had to put a text warning that, in fact, the rapid field-cut fragments of images would not hurt the television. Only available in midtown Manhattan, most viewers hadn’t seen anything like it. Now it’s the only thing they see. Out of the revolution, complacency. Out of the subversion, consumption. Once the old rules were gutted, there was nothing left to do. The Internet is the first new medium without rules, beyond structure. When the enemy embraces you, it’s over. Experiments become entertainment. Galleries dedicate prime space to projections that show digital films that could be pilots for the arts cable channel, the new overground cinema. Hey, Roscoe, let’s watch some video art on YouTube. Check out this guy’s website. I’m tired; it’s time to go to sleep. Just take a look. Stimulated, charged, sensual rich colors, delicate light patterns, and shifting forms. It’s common for Hollywood films to lead to sex. Is there an artwork that creates peace? Silence, only the most faint of lines, how much to erase before it is blank?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So the plot thickens, the intrigues, affairs, seductions, long gone, as the electronic-primitives age, almost ready for Bart Friedman’s retirement home for old video artists. He did this, she did that. Writing, curating, vj-ing, angling back door to epic mural television, a place that is real, but does not exist in physical space, where people meet but don’t see each other, where ideals collide with convictions. A democratic medium, a local voice, an activist tool- there is a Whitman wanabee body-electric strain to the early efforts. After monochrome painters assassinated Art, after pop blended it with culture, after poetic cinema showed a way beyond literature, the raster scan pointillism of video was free to borrow from all disciplines, especially science and the humanities, to create itself. Right place, right time, David Jones, too much beer, sleeping under David Marsh’s editing bay. I nudge, he reaches behind the board to patch cables. I’m pushing through the night, only a few more hours left with this precious equipment. I can sleep tomorrow when the session is over. This is the way it was, some time before this time, when we could sleep next to imaging systems, the matrix, breathing visuals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The art is neither real nor true, but neither is this statement. It comes from life, recorded on tape or an SD card. Everybody has a story. Everybody deserves to tell and be heard. Shoah stories are the hardest for me. I finally mourned my grandfather through a video fractured by damaged vision recorded in Poland and Romania. It begins with Reb Nachman’s niggun, the narrow bridge, chanted by a Christian Polish musician. Visiting the places I knew somehow from dreams. Sighet seemed familiar. Shavuot there with a minyan, drinking schnapps, and davenning. It’s easy to imagine my grandmother and grandfather, who I was named after, nearby. I remember her quick bursts of unexpected davenning in her Brooklyn apartment. We gossip in broken English, Yiddish, Hebrew about my mother’s family and life in America. The Iron Curtain had just disintegrated, the Coucescos executed, and they could speak freely with foreign visitors. They took us to where they said my mother lived, close to the house Eli Weisel grew up in. Some Russian tourists gave us one of their rooms so we could stay in the best of the Sighet hotels. Warner slept on the floor; the place smelled of kerosene. A Christian teenager who spoke some English became our guide. I gave him a digital camera and he learned photographic composition during the few days we were there. When I left, I gave him my Saturn baseball hat. His parents invited us for dinner and drinks. They had three b/w television sets piled up in their living room, like a Paik installation. At midnight, we watched the trial of the Coucesco son. A school teacher, an Ivri, invited us for lunch and drinks. He asked nonstop questions in perfect English that he learned from books, about life outside Romania and told us what it’s like to live in a state of constant fear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I was influenced by Martin Buber and John Cage simultaneously during my last years of High School and started to think of myself as a Zen-Chasid. Buber helped me understand how the mystical Zionism of the Eastern European countries became part of the practical Zionism emerging in Palestine, Russia, and Germany. A Habonimnik growing up, my understanding of Zionism was that it was a progressive part of a universal labor movement that included equality and civil rights. This is what we got from Hertzl- “Nothing prevents us from being and remaining the exponents of a united humanity, when we have a country of our own. To fulfill this mission we do not have to remain literally planted among the nations who hate and despise us.” Habonim stresses Hagshama, the actualization of values. As a Socialist-Zionist, it was not cool to dwell on the Holy Land elements; for us, Israel would be a worker’s paradise. In response to Gandhi who believed the Jews should have remained in Europe and practiced nonviolent protest against the Nazis, Buber wrote- “We considered and still consider it our duty to understand and to honor the claim which is opposed to us and to endeavor to reconcile both claims. We could not and cannot renounce the Jewish claim; something even higher than the life of our people is bound up with this land, namely its work, its divine mission. But we have been and are still convinced that it must be possible to find some compromise between this claim and the other, for we love this land and we believe in its future; since such love and such faith are surely present on the other side as well, a union in the common service of the land must be within the range of possibility. Where there is faith and love, a solution may be found even to what appears to be a tragic opposition." Working and traveling in Israel and the West Bank during 1968-69, I better understood Buber’s prescience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Attention sways to the here and now- this story and the next one. By now you can tell that I’m not a writer. You might be wondering if there is some order to this mess. Is he trying to make a collage with words? Is there some connection between Zionism and living on the edge, being a border crosser? Is this the mind of a peripatetic Hebrew, buzzing like an annoying mosquito in my ear? Will reading this essay result in an itch? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This really happened, but I won’t tell you why. 2009 – Hundreds of revelers in Ghana running toward me, circling me, grabbing for the camera. 1983 – AIR at Bronx Museum of Art – the punk asking me, what’s to keep him from taking my camera. I nod toward Malik el Amin, my friend and watcher, holding a heavy tripod. Oh. To get students into the workshop, I went alone door-to-door in apartment houses giving out brochures explaining the museum that had just moved into the abandoned synagogue on the Grand Concourse. People must have thought I was crazy, but I never felt personally in danger as I wandered around the burned out streets. The Bronx became a metaphor for things that are hard to understand, Reagan's military adventures in small countries, and search for identity. The lesson of hip-hop was familiar from my Fluxes oriented education- everything is fluid and mixable. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The Museum sent me to Morocco to create a video portrait of Mohammed Melehi for his retrospective exhibition. In Morocco I deeply felt my Semitic roots. Time in a relatively peaceful country where there is little separation between life and religion, turned me back to a search for essential tribal identity, i.e. one where spirituality is infused into every damn thing. Melehi took me to some mosques with painted ceilings hidden in road-less High Atlas Mt. villages. He told me that the Jews were crafts people and probably were among those who painted the delicate abstract forms that actually represented things in nature. He told me that the two communities shared the mosque for prayers. Each mosque had the following written statement: “only God is perfect.” I know life was hard for the Jews of Morocco who left for Israel as soon as they could; but I was astonished to hear of the levels of cooperation and co-existence among the cousins. At a cultural festival in Morocco where I was invited to show my videos, I met Palestinian poet, Iraqi lute player, and Tunisian printmaker. Paul Bowles, the daughter of the King, and many other dignitaries and art world luminaries appeared at the festival concerts and events. William Burroughs would have come, but he was in Kansas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Memories are fictions based on mostly forgotten facts. Are the memories recorded on video and film more real than those recalled? There is a representational banality in the recording, subjective eye, often familial linearity, and mundane literalness in the representations. Documentaries (even verite) are reinvented narratives based on editing, composition, and soundtrack. It is always self-anthropology (Sol Worth) when the most narcissistic natives are given tools to record themselves. New media advocate Gene Youngblood said the first thing people do with video is bring it to the bedroom. Rosalind Krauss immediately identified video as a reverse mirror. While that urge or ploy (for sex and seduction) is always inherent in art, there is ultimately a maturation of intention and practice. Sexuality becomes just one part of personal voice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I heard that some people were upset that I wrote something for the voice of a Caribbean man. It’s a letter I actually wrote to Heshi, my bio-bro living in Israel. Since promised land is a common theme in art, and my intention is metaphoric anyway, I asked musician Romeo Fontenelle to perform the letter in French and English. My bio-bro sometimes reminds me that I’m not black. I know I’m not. But we’re somewhat colored with traces of Romania, North Africa, and The Pale. In Israel people asked if I was Jordanian. On Eretz Broadway or Dizengoff, I blend. In Ghana, I’m pure white. Many people in Kumasi expressed fascination with Jewish beliefs and practices. Someone naively asked if Jews still used blood to make Matzah. The same person kept saying that she wished she was Jewish. Many Akan believe they are part of the Lost Tribes, the ones who left slavery in Egypt and went south instead of meandering toward Zion. I’m not surprised to see a range of skin tones and features in synagogues I attend. Like Roma, we assume the characteristics of the surroundings, even our looks, to be part of the dominant culture. Unlike the Roma, we are uncomfortable both in diaspora and at home. Exile is part of survival, but it’s never enough.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Curious that the alliance of mystical and political Zionism, once tightly bound, are now conflicted. How has Zionism, which is essentially an ideal, been divided into political extremes that make military decisions? How can someone who observes Jewish traditions and beliefs not be a Zionist? What is a secular Jew? Are there secular Moslems, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus? I’ve heard of lapsed Catholics. Can one be a lapsed Jew? What is a Jew when the word identifies believers and those who don’t care? If Jewishness is cultural, what is being celebrated? In a twist of Tao, isn’t it the one who doesn’t care, who just tries to live a positive life, closer to the divine? There are many Chasidic stories about communities being spiritually saved by a child or a simple person with a whistle, reciting the alphabet, dancing, or shedding a tear. Maybe secular Jews are so secure in their Jewishness that they don’t have to deal with questions of the Ultimate. In Islamic countries most people naturally pray as part of their daily lives. The people love their families and care for their neighbors. In Ghana we always said grace at the beginning of every meal, strangers holding hands, one breakfast, the sonorous voice of the president of the Bible society at the Guest House, as he thanks the One who provides. This is the way of the blessings, the most important meditations of the day, continuous consciousness toward the Bountiful One. Jeffrey Lew, Jew/Gypsy by birth, loved my grandmother. When he asked her what life was all about, after all of her tragedies, near escapes, and immigrant life, and she said, “nothing” Jeffrey labeled her a Buddhist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">As an imagist, I’m safe in abstraction. I create my own world, language, and animated behaviors. With words, there is danger of meanings. I can remember the rules we learned in art school, the ones on the BFA multiple-choice final exam:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When you are asked a question about art-</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A. Answer the question with a question.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">B. Manipulate a nearby object.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">C. Walk away, pause and turn as if to say something, continue walking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When you are asked about your art-</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A. Lie in an honest way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">B. Be sincere but indirect.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">C. Be direct but insincere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When someone pushes for narrative-</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A. Provide one that has nothing to do with the plot.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">B. Provide details of something that once happened to you, or someone you know.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">C. Deflect seriousness with humor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When asked a technical question-</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A. Pretend that you don’t understand the question.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">B. Use technical terms from engineering and physics.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">C. Make a spiritual analogy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If someone in the art world asks if you are a Zionist-</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A. Watch your back.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">B. Explain <i>hagshama</i> (actualizing values).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">C. Draw a penis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When asked by an interviewer what my obsessions were, I answered, “being a good person.” This kind of response is death for the artist. Too much color is not cool. Passion, romance, and enthusiasm are ok if they are “ironic.” What happens when the radical desire to remain outside of the system keeps you out of the system? As the Talmud says, “The place honors not the man, ‘tis the man who gives honor to the place.” Is it true that when one enters Zion, Zion no longer exists? If Zion is a dream, when do we wake up? Does Zion mean the same for Rastafarians as it does to me, a descendent of Feivish Heller ha-Levi, and back? Chronology- R' Meshullam Feivish HELLER is a grandson of the Tosefot Yomtov, grandson of the great gaon and tzaddik R' Meir HaLevi of Radschen the son-in-law of the Yedei Moshe on Midrash Rabba, who is the son of the son of the Rashal, grandson of Rashi, Hillel the Elder, R' Yochanan HaSandlar back to King David. I am a distant cousin of Yeshua! Is this genealogy a documentary or an extended Biblical farce? Fact, fiction, or faction? The doctor asked, how did your grandfather die? He was killed by the Nazis. So stay away from Nazis and you should live a long life. I asked the draft board member, was I named Shalom to be a soldier? He changed my name to Roscoe and told me where to report.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">My art work presents a false reality, one in which I can read Pier Marton’s mind while connected by satellite (<i>Telepathos</i>) and be Doug Davis’ twin/ghost in <i>Four Places Two Figures One Ghost</i>, the first networked telecast from a New York City museum. My Rabbi David Ingber said that Israel, usually translated as wrestler with God, can also be translated as embracer of the Holy One. I acknowledged the sensuality of body contact through classical wrestling during High School. I tried to macho myself by being part of the team that at once represented the purest form of fighting and hugging, the Jewish boy trying to be Greek. Before that my main sport was running away from bullies. At Antioch I studied boxing, maybe trying to be Black, but soon became a long distance runner, which is also the kind of artist I want to be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">At Kibbutz Hazorea as volunteer in 1968, I worked with cows and no one wanted to share a room. I would have walked barefoot though manure to be alone at night, except for the snakes. Ezra Milo, a psychologist and leading educator in the Shomer Hatzair community, was feeding me books (Maslow, Rogers, and Adler, among others) about existential psychology and serving as a therapist through almost daily conversations. Ezra, my spiritual father, had studied and worked with Buber. Confession- one calf followed me around as though she knew me from another life and I switched her tag when I heard she’d been sold. We had great trips through the newly liberated Golan Heights, Banyas (where I shot images that I later used for my first video), Jericho, Nablus, Hebron, and many other places where we walked freely. It’s too bad that when the Jordanians pulled out, the Israelis should have followed Buber and Brit Shalom’s advice to make friendly gestures to the Palestinians, trying to coexist. Ultimately force never works. I spent too much time at the end of the Valley, contemplating the border at Megiddo, the place prophesized for the Apocalypse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I told Mrs. Zabar I still loved the “dry place,” a code for mystical Zionism. I’d given her my syllabus for Israeli-Palestinian cinema class I teach, but she cut me out of the loop of her Other Israel Festival when I told her that I was a you know what. Israel is a safe place to be Jewish, but not to be a human. Jerusalem is infused in me like DNA. But the longing is more powerful than the physical place. What does the Electric Jew do knowing ancestry, honoring parents, being true to idea of “Israel” a wrestler/embracer? How do the stories, the solutions, the moral laws get translated into some kind of Jewish art? Maybe all Jewish art includes wrestling and embracing. This covers Woody Allen to Jonathan Borofsky. I can literally mix myself into the work of a long lineage of Jewish artists; my teacher Allan Kaprow walked on water at the Sea of Galilee in Nam June Paik’s <i>Allan and Allen’s Complaint</i>. I have written about Paik’s fascination with Jewish themes- the centerpiece of his tour de force Guggenheim retrospective was <i>Jacob’s Ladder</i>. Consider the earliest vidiots- Beryl Korot, Ira Schneider, Bart Friedman, Jaime Davidovitch, and Shirley Clarke, to name a few. It is generally agreed that Wolf Vostell was among the first to use video in an installation. He lived in Berlin and dressed like a Chasid. For me, iShiviti, Psalm Flags, and Vidrash are templates, sources for inspiration. It is the substance of the artist’s being that leaks into the art, that is, the content is not what’s seen, but behind what is being shown.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In 1972, Allon Schoerner, an avant-garde curator, recruited me to do an audio installation for “Jerusalem Calling” a multimedia exhibition at the Jewish Museum in NYC, honoring Hadassah’s contributions to Israel. Since I was drafted, opposed to the war in Vietnam, and strongly considering giving up US citizenship and making Aliyah, this was an excellent opportunity to have a third visit to Israel while participating in an important art project. David Cort, an irrepressible/irresistible video artist and Bob Quinn, a respected light show artist and photographer, and I lived in Jerusalem for a month, under the protection of Mayor Kolleck’s office while collecting materials through exploring many sides of the city. It was a harsh winter. We had lots of equipment and tapes and sometimes conflicting ideas about our objectives. David, a secular Jew, comes from community activism and wanted to look for the problems in Jerusalem. Bob wasn’t Jewish and was happy taking pictures of everything. I was collecting sound for an audio installation that involved earphones, a dial to access the ten distinct channels, and piles of newspapers and magazines I brought back with me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Our time in Jerusalem was too exciting. We got caught up with the Moroccan Black Panthers who led us on a tour of the slums. We later found out that our translator was exaggerating the responses of the people we met. We attended a demonstration and got caught in a police action in which they surrounded the gathering with buses and garbage trucks and choked us with exhaust. Several of the leaders were arrested. I interviewed an artist whose paintings had bullet holes from the cross fire of Israeli and Jordanian soldiers. The great Israeli filmmaker Ben Haim and his brother got us into Bethlehem Christmas Eve by driving around the city until they found a check-post manned by one of their cousins from India. From Manger Square we watched the sunset over a golden Jerusalem in the distance, always bigger than life, while listening to gentle Christmas chants and hymns in many languages. During our time in Jerusalem, I audiotaped interviews with artists, people on the street, wounded soldiers recuperating at Hadassah hospital, and activists. One night we witnessed a clandestine meeting in a café with young Palestinians and Israelis who were earnestly working on a peace treaty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We showed our work to many television journalists who were still waiting for the latest ½” video technology to arrive at the Israeli TV news studios. I learned about how hard it was for these former soldiers, working several jobs with complex relationships amid political tension, and growing hostility from Palestinians, to have an apartment and families. I couldn’t imagine having access to the media and computer tools that I was obsessed with as a student and young artist, with the realities of television and art in Israel. I was selected for the project because of my previous experiences in Israel, familiarity with Hebrew, and enthusiasm. David began suspicious and critical. I returned to NYC with a dread about the draft and conflicted feelings about Israel. David remained for several weeks at a Yeshiva, before returning to edit and install work at the museum. He had found a Rebbe with a laugh as free and infectious as his.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Dreams don’t hurt, longings don’t wound, Zionism is heartbreaking. I’ve made several videos in Israel – <i>nr. Banyas, frontier ahead; Excavations</i>; and <i>Jerusalem Road</i>. I used 8 mm film that I’d shot in Banyas and Golan Heights in '68, stretching frames by playing with an electronic film scanner. <i>Excavations</i> (1979), was recorded at Kibbutz Gezer, over grown ruins of a Palestinian village, and in Beer Sheva. <i>Jerusalem Road</i> (1990) includes images from Masada, Mitspe Rimon, and Jerusalem. These are not documentary, fiction, fantasy, journalism, or experimental. They are plotless, but tell a story. They are nonverbal but not without words. They are cathartic, semi-abstract, and hybrid. As an Ivri, it is my job to cross boundaries. Like Joshua and the scouts, I have been recruited to look at the other side. In my metaphorical world, this means beyond structure, beyond methods, beyond meaning. Heshi, my bio-bro driving a tractor pulling irrigation pipes through a field; a tram ride up to Masada; snapped shots of the road from south to north, is this the final voyage, from the wilderness to the holy city? My eyes tear while davenning, relaxing at the seder, during studies when I read the utopian version of the earth’s future while looking around me at the growing number of catastrophes and blunders. In my vision, Jerusalem cries, too. Is it too naïve to hope? Too childish to imagine? Too Jewish to (not) suffer?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In 1989, I was asked by the USIS to support the efforts of the Beer Sheva Art Institute to add technological art to their curriculum and facilities. They were in the early stages of merging with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and used university studio and mobile equipment. I consulted with the administration and faculty on ways that artists were using new technologies and suggested systems, design, and purchase options. I taught a workshop that inspired me probably more than the students. In the multi-generational group, many carried the tragic emotional wounds of lost family and friends; some the scars of Europe and the early days of Israel. I basically showed them the equipment, answered a few questions about process, then watched them make things. Some turned the camera on themselves as a mirror and confessional; others explored the landscape of the city. One day, we were suddenly surrounded by soldiers pointing rifles, demanding we erase anything we’d just recorded. One older man, a wonderful artist who lived on a nearby kibbutz, used the camera like a brush in the hands of an action painter. Through my time in Beer Sheva and touring with presentations of my videos, I began to fall in love with Israel again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So let’s make a comedy, coming of age, a jump skip run story with a clear beginning and happy ending. Or let’s throw the camera into the bloody waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where gas/oil/chemicals kill fish and consume oxygen. Or we can combine them- how many politicians does it take to stop an oil leak? Maybe gallows humor is the only kind left. I can shout, I can play priest/prophet, I can sit for hours and meditate. I can transform images, making them more and less important than they once were. Someone asked me, does anyone even talk about Zionism anymore? Answer- only when there is an incident to condemn or a conspiracy being cooked. What does it have to do with my life? Everything and nothing. I was taught as a socialist/Zionist that religion, philosophy, political ideology, and authority, are all social constructs that give us a false sense of certainty. The church covering up sexual abuse; the synagogue rationalizing violence against others. I know about the long history of regional conflicts. Unfortunately, much of the world has been convinced that David is now a Philistine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In my MFA program we were taught to answer questions about art, as if they could fit on a fortune in a Chinese cookie. Pick one from each column. Don’t worry about complete sentences. Art, life, time, energy, mood, light, colors, patterns, forms, textures, mass, negative space, and darkness; psychology, philosophy, religion, history, contemporary events, and familial relationships; identity, gender, sexuality, mysticism, and art collage the swirling pixels. Waves, duration, sequencing, buffering, frequency generation, and oscillations; moving, still, motioning, gesturing, and twisting; dancing, saturation, luminosity, and repetition recompose multiple channels of raging visuals. Electricity, physics, atmosphere, radiation, and percussion; fact, fiction, invention, discovery, and manipulation; questions, experiments, flexibility, and luck lead to good results.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">My father taught me to live a crooked life, that is, to meander, find tangents, and accept disorder. My mother taught me to keep a low profile, under the surface, decisive in action, confident in retreat. They were socialists who remained relatively non-materialistic. Both had difficult childhoods- my mother escaped Sighet as a baby; my father’s father died just before his bar mitzvah which soured him on haShem, although he was a good hearted man who lived on balance, an honorable life. My mother was in the resistance in Antwerp and helped save many children and families. She maintains her faith in haShem and has had an active career as a Yiddish folk singer and storyteller. My father went into a coma while I was in Rio working with the Brazilian choreographer Regina Miranda, on a video backdrop for an evening length performance. I decided to remain and complete the project, believing that this is what he would want me to do since he was a great supporter and lover of modern dance. He survived and lived for a few more years. As I write, my mother (85) is preparing a trip to Jerusalem to visit her grandson and many friends and family in Israel. She is introducing her granddaughter Rosa (8), named after my grandmother, to Israel. I was there last in 2005 with Esther Murray and others working on a proposal for Ashdod’s 50th anniversary, meeting with curators, researching for my Israel-Palestine cinema class. I hope to return soon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Zionism is a network created by Herzl and others to connect disparate, sometimes desperate people to a practical ideal adapted from spiritual longing. Zionism is an international television program with many channels and sub-channels- almost every tribe has its version of Zion, and every community in the tribe has its version as well. The inherent problem with Zionism or any other utopian dream is that a philosophy or vision cannot also be a place. Once something is inhabited, it loses its right to be called Zion. When Martin Luther King dreamed from the Mountain, was it physical or metaphoric? Zion, broadly a messianic faith and utopian point of view, loses its meaning, once it becomes physical. The problem with the settler movement, which I am not totally unsympathetic to, knowing how beautiful and serene the Palestinian landscape can be, is the need to still believe that Zion is somewhere out there, out the window of your house in a suburban oasis surrounded by hostile terrain and people. It’s not a realistic dream anymore. Maybe people can just live in Palestine and pay their taxes there if they want to maintain a Jewish presence in Hebron and near other Biblical holy sites. As Moses marched the Israelites to the gates of the promised land, he made peace whenever he could. The Biblical enemies are still in place. Can’t we give some gifts then go around them, the way Jacob did with Esau? Do we forever have to play out these bloody psychodramas that boil down to about being the favored son?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Zionism as a network loses its meaning when you are living inside Zion. It’s only when you are not “there” that it summons passionate dreams and heroic actions. If one searches for Zion on the Internet, it’s more likely to turn up gospel or reggae, than anything Jewish. Israeli’s live inside of its myth. This imagination extends from mystical Chasidism to political Zionism. The pious supplied the slogans; the politicians twisted them into words worth fighting and sacrificing for. As Israelis become more and more secular, as if they are living their Judaism by being b’eretz, but no longer moved by the Chasidic wails and pleas and hope, the magnetic power of the movement is lost. My mother might have been Shomer ha’Tzair, socialist and secular, but she grew up in an observant home. My grandmother was essentially a Budapest Buddhist, but she could daven with the best. Secularization in the diaspora is an immediate threat to the survival of the Zionist idea. Only those in the Diaspora can have a clear vision of Zion. Once a Jew lives in Israel, Zionism is no longer needed. I don’t daven or shuckle well, but I cry when I hear some of the prayers and chants.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Art naturally happens everywhere, artists can always find ways to be part of a community. Parties (it even has the word art and ties built into it!), receptions, social gatherings, fundraisers and other formal events are the main channels for sharing information. Art is international and has intentionally porous borders. The edges are encouraged, the center tolerated. Like the mystical Zion of the prayer service, it is generally peaceful, gently critical, and detached. At the Moussem (cultural festival) in Asilah, Morocco, I asked a Palestinian poet about the sources and themes of his writing and performance. My daughter played with the children of the mostly African and Middle Eastern artists. We might not agree about politics, religion, and gender roles, but we can discuss and share our work as observers. We can talk the language of music and dance in ways that fuse, rather than divide us. If I thought that Zionism was a “closed” idea, I would not have been able to have these dialogues where we meet as human beings. I could affirm my love of Israel and pain at the struggles with these colleagues without being shut out of the dialogue. Zionism was not intended as a dogma and we should not need bullet proof armor to defend ourselves, but through our actions convey a gently permeating river of kindness and empathy to others and the earth, remembering where we come from and to Whom we owe all. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">About the Artist</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>Shalom Gorewitz has been working with video and computer technology since the late 1960's to create poetic, intellectual, and politically charged art videos relating to faith, relationships, and social issues. He works alone with prototype and low-end, accessible computer and video systems to collect, transform, and edit sounds and visuals. The results are lyrical contemplations of mundane realities in which the background becomes the landscape for imaginary scenarios. In addition to single channel videos, he has created and has collaborated on many installations, art documentaries, and telecommunication art events. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>His work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art, NYC, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany; Itau Cultural Center, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Kowasaki Museum, Tokyo, Japan; NY Public Library/Donnell Branch; Library of California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA; Getty Museum Video Art Archive, LA, CA. A 1989 Guggenheim Fellow, he has received support from the National Endowment from the Arts, Asian Cultural Foundation, Fulbright Foundation, and Arts America. Gorewitz is a Professor of Visual Arts at Ramapo College, a four-year comprehensive college in New Jersey.</i></span>Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-3086578340102895732010-06-10T23:04:00.000-07:002015-06-22T00:15:20.804-07:00On Being a Zionist<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Artists writing essays about their life and art for the book <i>Zionist Artists in a Networked World</i> may find inspiration from Gil Troy’s powerful statement published in <i>The Jerusalem Post</i> / <i>JPost.com</i> (7 May 2008). See the video <i>Why I am a Zionist: A 21st Century Manifesto</i> at his website: <a href="http://giltroy.com/zionismandisrael/wiaz2008.htm">http://giltroy.com/zionismandisrael/wiaz2008.htm</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University and author of the book <i>Why I Am A Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today</i>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-size: large;">Why I Am a Zionist</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>by Gil Troy</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Today, too many friends and foes define Israel, and Zionism, by the Arab world's hostility. Doing so misses Israel's everyday miracles, the millions who live and learn, laugh and play, in the Middle East's only functional democracy. Doing so ignores the achievements of Zionism, a gutsy, visionary movement which rescued a shattered people by reuniting a scattered people. Doing so neglects the transformative potential of Zionism, which could inspire new generations of Israeli and Diaspora Jews to find personal redemption by redeeming their old-new communal homeland. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Tragically, Zionism is embattled. Arabs have demonized Zionism as the modern bogeyman, and many have clumped Zionists, along with Americans and most Westerners, as the Great Satans. In Israel, trendy post-Zionists denigrate the state which showers them with privilege, while in the Diaspora a few Jewish anti-Zionists loudly curry favor with the Jewish state's enemies. Jews should reaffirm their faith in Zionism; the world should appreciate its many accomplishments. Zionists must not allow their enemies to define and slander the movement. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">No nationalism is pure, no movement is perfect, no state ideal. But today Zionism remains legitimate, inspiring, and relevant, to me and most Jews. Zionism offers an identity anchor in a world of dizzying choices - and a road map toward national renewal. A century ago, Zionism revived pride in the label "Jew"; today, Jews must revive pride in the label "Zionist." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because I am a Jew - and without recognizing Judaism's national component, I cannot explain its unique character. Judaism is a world religion bound to one homeland, shaping a people whose holy days revolve around the Israeli agricultural calendar, ritualize theological concepts, and relive historic events. Only in Israel can a Jew fully live in Jewish space and by Jewish time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because I share the past, present, and future of my people, the Jewish people. Our nerve endings are uniquely intertwined. When one of us suffers, we share the pain; when many of us advance communal ideals together, we - and the world - benefit. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because I know my history - and after being exiled from their homeland more than 1900 years ago, the defenseless, wandering Jews endured repeated persecutions from both Christians and Muslims - centuries before this anti-Semitism culminated in the Holocaust. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because Jews never forgot their ties to their homeland, their love for Jerusalem. Even when they established autonomous self-governing structures in Babylonia, in Europe, in North Africa, these governments in exile yearned to return home. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because those ideological ties nourished and were nurtured by the plucky minority of Jews who remained in the land of Israel, sustaining continued Jewish settlement throughout the exile. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because in modern times the promise of Emancipation and Enlightenment was a double-edged sword, often only offering acceptance for Jews in Europe after they assimilated, yet never fully respecting them if they did assimilate. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because in establishing the sovereign state of Israel in 1948, the Jews reconstituted in modern Western terms a relationship with a land they had been attached to for millennia, since Biblical times - just as Japan or India established modern states from ancient civilizations. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because in building that state, the Jews returned to history and embraced normalcy, a condition which gave them power, with all its benefits, responsibilities, and dilemmas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because I celebrate Israel's existence. Like any thoughtful patriot, though I might criticize particular government policies I dislike - I do not delegitimize the state itself. I am a Zionist because I live in the real world of nation-states. I see that Zionism is no more or less "racist" than any other nationalism, be it American, Armenian, Canadian, or Czech. All express the eternal human need for some internal cohesion, some tribalism, some solidarity among some historic grouping of individuals, and not others. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because we have learned from North American multiculturalism that pride in one's heritage as a Jew, an Italian, a Greek, can provide essential, time-tested anchors in our me-me-me, my-my-my, more-more-more, now-now-now world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because in Israel we have learned that a country without a vision is like a person without a soul; a big-tent Zionism can inculcate values, fight corruption, reaffirm national unity, and restore a sense of mission. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because in our world of post-modern multi-dimensional identities, we don't have to be "either-ors", we can be "ands and buts" - a Zionist AND an American patriot; a secular Jew BUT also a Zionist. Just as some people living in Israel reject Zionism, meaning Jewish nationalism, Jews in the Diaspora can embrace it. To those who ask "How can you be a Zionist if you don't make aliya," I reply, "How will anyone make aliya without first being a Zionist?" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because I am a democrat. The marriage of democracy and nationalism has produced great liberal democracies, including Israel, despite its democracy being tested under severe conditions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because I am an idealist. Just as a century ago, the notion of a viable, independent, sovereign Jewish state was an impossible dream - yet worth fighting for - so, too, today, the notion of a thriving, independent, sovereign Jewish state living in true peace with its neighbors appears to be an impossible dream - yet worth seeking. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am a Zionist because I am a romantic. The story of the Jews rebuilding their homeland, reclaiming the desert, renewing themselves, was one of the 20th century's greatest epics, just as the narrative of the Jews maintaining their homeland, reconciling with the Arab world, renewing themselves, and serving as a light to others, a model nation state, could be one of this century's marvels. Yes, it sometimes sounds far-fetched. But, as Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, said in an idle boast that has become a cliche: "If you will it, it is no dream." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>World Zionist Congress, Jerusalem, 2010/5770</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Posted here is an update to Gil Troy's 2008 Zionist manefesto from his 16 June 2010 <i>Jerusalem Post</i> op-ed "The World Zionist Congress is not even relevant enough to be targeted. The congress which once shaped Jewish history is a ghost of its former self." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"Zionism always had more ambitious, more humanistic, aims to elevate the Jewish soul not just protect Jewish bodies, and by redeeming the Jewish people, redeem the world.... We need a World Zionist Congress worthy of its tradition. We need a modern Theodore Herzl to move us from hysteria to hope, from defending to dreaming, from reacting to crises to creating opportunities. We need a modern Ahad Ha'am to tap into the Jewish homeland's secular and religious spiritual powers, reminding us of its centrality in our lives and nationalism's constructue power. We need a modern Max Nordau, whose literary fame in the non-Jewish world elevated the Zioinst movement, and who proclaimed; 'We Zionists wear our Judaism as a badge of honor.'"</span>Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-41353717755724810062010-06-01T08:03:00.000-07:002015-06-22T00:16:40.782-07:00Why, Despite My Obviously-Hebrew-Sounding Name, I Resist Calling Myself a Zionist Artist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b>by Menahem Wecker</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When I introduce myself in social or professional contexts, my name generally draws either blank stares or requests that I repeat my name or spell it. Often my new acquaintance tries several times in vain to pronounce my name, and I usually reassure her or him that the final attempt was close enough. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">On very rare occasions, the person smiles and reminds me that I share a given name with former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. I usually respond in jest that Mr. Begin adopted my name, hoping my tone masks my discomfort with the entire enterprise and my identification with Mr. Begin. I have nothing against the late politician, per se — I do not consider myself sufficiently versed in Israeli political history to have any sort of educated position on the man or his political career — but I am uncertain where I stand on the issue of Zionism, both past and contemporary. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">However much it makes me feel like a freshman timidly introducing a class presentation with a lame disclaimer and preemptive apology for the disgraceful quality of the work I am about to present, I must admit that I am very conflicted as I sit to write this essay.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">On the one hand, the title of one of the paintings which I most enjoyed creating, and which, years later, I continue to take pleasure in, is “Jerusalem.” It represents a vision of the Old City viewed from the German colony, where I loved spending hours on end at a restaurant and bar called Alexander’s listening to the Israeli and Palestinian musicians playing with the late Jazz legend Arnie Lawrence. For a small cover fee, I could spend hours mesmerized by the music, and by the idea of the collaboration. When my grandparents came to visit, I took them both to the bar, and my grandmother and I drew the musicians, particularly the pianist whose hands danced across the keyboard. When we got up to leave, my grandfather proudly presented the musician with both of our sketches.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I modeled my palette for the painting on the phrase, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yerushalayim shel zahav</i>, Jerusalem of gold, and I juxtaposed deep purples with bright yellows and ochres. I hoped the colors and forms of the Tower of David would appear to reach out to the heavens, all the while resembling branches – perhaps of the Tree of Life, said to sustain all of those who had the faith to reach out and grasp a hold of it, or the sly trap of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, all the more mesmerizing because it was the only one-way ticket out of paradise. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the painting, I tried to capture the disorientation of not knowing where the heavens ended and the earth began. In my studies at the yeshiva I attended about mid-way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, I had been stumbling my way through a variety of Chassidic and Kabbalistic texts, many of which discussed Rabbah bar bar-Chana, a Jewish version of Odysseus, who took fantastical journeys into the bowels of the earth and into the heavens above, and who encountered monsters that could have come out of one of the paintings of the early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One such story (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Baba Bathra, folio 74a) that particularly impressed me found Rabbah bar bar-Chana traveling to the place where the heavens meet the earth, with an Arab merchant as his guide. When the two arrived, they found it to be full of windows (Hebrew, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">arubot ha-shamayim</i>). Rabbah bar bar-Chana placed the basket he was carrying on one of the window sills while the two scouted out the area. When they returned, the basket was gone, so Rabbah bar bar-Chana wondered aloud, “Is it possible that there are burglars even in heaven?!” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It seems Rabbah bar bar-Chana was confused himself about the distinction between heavenly and earthly realms. He must have been thinking that Judaism really was unique if God allowed thieves into paradise. But the merchant assured his guest that robbers were not to blame. Instead, the heavens rotated regularly, and if Rabbah bar bar-Chana would only return at the same time the next day he would find his basket. And so he did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Perhaps, rather than trying to present a bird’s or worm’s eye view of Jerusalem in my painting, I was pursuing a Rabbah bar bar-Chana’s eye view — where Leviathans were as likely to surface as frogs and snakes so large that they could swallow entire villages. My Jerusalem was not only made of gold but also of myths and dreams and visions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When one of my art teachers told me I would love Israel, because the light was so different there, I did not quite understand how that was possible. A light is a light is a light, I was convinced. Sure I would need to buy new converters, because the outlets that I needed to plug my lights into would be different, but surely the light is a universal phenomenon that manifests itself in pretty much the same way without political, ethnic or religious distinction or discrimination.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I figured it out almost immediately on arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, though. Where my peers often confounded me with their declarations about their love for the “spirituality” of the land – try as I did, I must confess I never felt any such thing that I would be comfortable characterizing as “spiritual” – I certainly was conscious of a different aesthetic, a fresh color scheme. I could not find any outstanding levels of religious or moral purity in the Holy Land, but I did find the way the sunlight played off the surfaces of the Jerusalem stone in the Old City to be in a rare form of purity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Luckily, I had brought two duffel bags with me for the year – one with clothes, and the other stuffed with a roll of canvas, a staple gun, staples, pliers, brushes, charcoal, paints, sketch pads and an easel. When I should have been attending classes, I was alternating hitchhiking to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv each day, either visiting museums and galleries or drawing and painting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Today, I can hardly call myself a painter in anything but aspiration. My connection with art often seems parasitic. I am an art critic for several publications, mostly religious ones, but I rarely am able to find the time to create my own work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am also quite uncomfortable with the notion of calling myself a Zionist. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I grew up in Modern Orthodox and regular old Orthodox communities and often went to Hassidic synagogues — all communities where it was assumed that everyone was a Zionist. When I proudly updated the alumni community director of my high school with the information that I was one of the lead publicists for an event that brought former President Jimmy Carter to speak in Washington at The George Washington University, I was not surprised that the news did not make its way into the alumni newsletter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I have come to resist the label, in part, because I am not wholly confident that I even properly grasp the meaning of the word ‘Zionist.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I certainly wish peace for Israelis and Palestinians (and for the rest of the world too, while I am at it), but if I am brutally honest with myself, I feel I am an American primarily, and it is not unusual for days to pass without my once thinking about Israel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">“If I forget thee, O’ Jerusalem,” the psalmist famously declared, “let me forget my right hand.” I have surely forgotten Jerusalem, and if my right hand is symbolic of my painting arm, I have neglected that as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When I studied in Israel for those 10 or 11 months, I came to realize that one of the main things I had been taught in my day school education was a myth. In Israel, a Jew can always feel free and safe to openly be a Jew, the rabbis and teachers at my Modern Orthodox day school had taught me and my colleagues, and even if everyone else threw us out (why did it so often degenerate to an us versus them situation?), Israel would accept us with open arms. Somehow I was not convinced that we could expect a replication of the miracle where the Temple courtyard opened up to accommodate far more worshippers than the fire codes would have permitted. Could Israel really accommodate every Jew if push came to shove?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am partly convinced that Israel could be a safe haven for some of the world’s Jewry if a minor disaster did transpire. But in Israel, I was made to feel not like a Jew, but like an American primarily, and a Jew coincidentally. The rabbis at the yeshiva, many of whom were Americans who had moved to Israel (made <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aliyah</i>), often shared writings with the me and my peers of rabbis like Rabbi Abraham Isaac Ha-Cohen Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, who stated that there was no such thing as a Jew outside of Israel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Just minutes after the planes had crashed into the Twin Towers in New York, some of the Israeli children at the Sha’alavim boys’ school responded happily, “Now the Americans will know how we feel.” I am not blaming the young boys for their perspective – they did not know any better, and must have felt frustrated that the rest of the world did not and could not grasp the devastation that accompanies terrorism – but I cite the story to illustrate how different their perspective was. It was almost like we were two very different types of Jews, and I certainly did not feel like I was the imposter and they were the prototype I should be aspiring to join.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And yet, there is something that I have noticed in the drawings of the Ukrainian artist Ephraim Moses “E. M.” Lilien, co-founder of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, which has affected me in a way that no other work has. I believe it has affected me precisely for its religious and Zionist content.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I have a poor visual memory generally, and I can’t ever seem to remember my dreams – surely a prerequisite for a Zionist! But Lilien’s art nouveau Theodor Herzl-as-Moses (1908), infused (at least for me) with the eroticism and the absinthe scented drawings of Aubrey Beardsley, is something I have not been able to get out of my mind since my friend Amy Stempler, an expert in Jewish library science and assistant professor at the College of Staten Island, showed it to me at the I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection in Washington, D.C.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am pretty sure Lilien was not only pining back to the bible, to the time of Moses and to the drawings Beardsley had composed just over a decade earlier of Salome dancing with the severed head of John the Baptist on a platter. There is something timeless yet derivative about placing modern heads on historical figures or characters from religious texts. I am thinking of all the medieval artists who appended their patrons’ features to the bodies of saints and prophets and of the late painter, caricaturist, social critic and political satirist David Levine, who told me he loved drawing caricatures of the Roman busts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There is something unique in Lilien’s Moses-as-Herzl, which I will take as a microcosm of the larger field of art and Zionism. I sense something similar in the tortured (yet dignified) faces of Anna Ticho’s subjects (her husband’s patients) and Hermann Struck’s portraits of rabbis. Just as James Joyce’s nostalgia for Dublin was so personal and deeply felt, and yet clearly in retrospect so universal, so too is the nostalgia, sorrow, love, memory and tradition of Jerusalem unique to Jews and Jewish artists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In Lilien’s Assyrian, or Babylonian looking Herzl-Moses, one cannot help but be struck by the collision – or even simultaneous cohabitation – of the ancient past with modernity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I am not sure I am an artist or a Zionist. I would certainly resist the title of Zionist artist. But I would be lying if I pretended that I am not sometimes affected by works that I would be comfortable identifying as Zionist art.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Take Rembrandt’s 1640 painting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem</i>, which is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There is more than enough emotion in the face of the broken old man who has seen his horrifying prophecies realized. Jeremiah sits beneath a column (generally symbolic of fortitude, but here perhaps an ironic prop meant to signify anything but stability and safety) hunched over with his head resting on his left hand. Although well dressed, he is barefoot and sits in a depressingly dark and amorphous space, perhaps a cave. Jeremiah’s elbow rests on a book, inscribed ‘Bibel,’ no doubt a later addition to the work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the top left register of the painting, the destruction of Jerusalem can be seen, and one can just barely make out fires and the Jewish king Zedekiah, clutching his eyes which Nebuchadnezzar had ordered be put out. What appears to be a domed building above Zedekiah might represent Solomon’s Temple.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Jeremiah had of course prophesied the temple’s destruction, and Rembrandt captures the prophet as he is overcome with the pain of watching events unfold in real time that he had foreseen. It was too late for repentance; this was no situation like Jonah’s preemptive warnings to the denizens of Nineveh. It was more like Noah holing himself up in his ark.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The prophet’s posture reminds me a little of Daumier’s work, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">O’ Moon, Inspire Me</i>, which depicts a woman gazing longingly up at the moon. She curses her husband, while Jeremiah mourns the temple, but there is something in the gaze of both figures that is not easy to forget.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Daumier’s work is humorous in a biting way, because it is so familiar. Rembrandt’s Jeremiah is more majestic and distant, but I find it very hard to avoid bringing everything I know about Jerusalem and the bible into the work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In the course of covering the intersection of Judaism and art for several years, I have often written about Israeli art. Often that art was about victimhood – whether depicting Holocaust memory or suicide bombing – but there is another sort of art that is affirmative in its delineation of the Israeli experience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One of the Israeli artists whose work has most interested me is Mel Alexenberg, whose book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Future of Art in a Digital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness</i>, I reviewed in 2007.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I thought Alexenberg’s memorial to the would-be victims of an Iranian attack on Israel was witty and gutsy, and his analysis of the paradigm shift from what he called Hellenistic to Hebraic consciousness was both scholarly and accessible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I appreciated Alexenberg’s art and aesthetic analysis not because his subject matter – Jewish sacred texts, Israel, etc. – were so familiar to me and because they made my nostalgic. Alexenberg and his work are important because he is an artist first, and a creator of Zionist art second. I do not mean to raise the question of hyphenated identities (American Jew, or Jewish American?), and I am certain that Alexenberg would say his faith and his life views cannot be separated from his art. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But it is very important to note that Alexenberg (and many of his colleagues who create Jewish and Israeli art) is not an outsider artist. He has classical training and extensive experience. His art is often about Zionism – and it could be argued by some to even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be</i> Zionist – but it is art first, and about Zionism second. Anything else would approach kitsch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In researching my review, I asked Alexenberg about the would-be memorial, and wondered if it was inviting the evil eye. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">“What I’m doing is using my abilities as a new media artist to issue a wakeup call to an indifferent world and to Jews with their heads in the sand and warn of a horrific danger facing Israel and all the free world,” he told me. “To hell with an evil eye. It is evil to sit back and do nothing.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Although most trends in modern and contemporary art have been toward a deconstructionist (or post-structuralist, or frankly, post-anything-ist) where absolutes like ‘evil’ do not exist (or simultaneously exist and do not exist), Alexenberg confidently states that his art has amulet-like properties. It reminds me of a conversation I had with painter Archie Rand, presidential professor of art at Brooklyn College, where he stated that his works are Jewish precisely because he states that they are Jewish. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Tom Barron, a Boston-based painter, has often told me that a painting is Jewish if its mother is Jewish. Rand, who recently exhibited a 613 canvas series (one per commandment according to the Maimonidean tally), is a Jewish parent so he insists his work is too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Religious painters, I have found, often create their art in a void for a non-existent public. Religious institutions and clergy often adopt cautious approaches to engaging art, and often censor it. Secular museums and galleries, meanwhile, often consider sacred art to be the worst kind of kitsch. Rand’s The 613 and many other works with significant religious content are caught in the no-man’s land between two hostile territories. He and his colleagues, he once told me, create work that holds up a flag to test enemy firepower.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If Jewish art is the red-headed stepchild of the art world, Israeli or Zionist art is not even invited to the family outings. If I had a shekel for every Israeli artist who diluted the impact of her or his work by stressing how “internationalist” the style was, I would be purchasing real estate in Tel Aviv. Often, it takes many more Google searches than it should to find the nationality and place of birth of artists with obviously Hebrew names. They simply do not state it on their websites, either (I assume) because they are afraid of the conclusions others will draw, or because they themselves are unsure about or uncomfortable with their identities. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The only parallel experience I have had has been with artists affiliated (or formerly affiliated) with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Some share images of Jesus on their websites, but they bury the word ‘Mormon,’ if it even appears on their websites to begin with.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Even if I do not identify as a Zionist artist, I applaud artists who firmly share their political and religious convictions in their work. One of the things I enjoy most about studying sacred art is the element of self-portraiture. In every biblical scene, the artist infuses the work with her or his personal interpretations of the scene (is Moses dressed in so-called “biblical” garb, or contemporary attire? How was the sacrifice of Isaac choreographed?). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The same can be said of Zionist art. It stands to reason that a country whose cab drivers so readily discuss politics and history (reminding me of the taxi drivers in Washington, D.C., where I live) should also produce artists whose works wear their politics and theology on their sleeves. Rav Kook noted this in his writings, in addition to warning the students of the Jerusalem-based Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts about some of the dangers of art-making. Alexenberg picks up, in some ways, where Rav Kook left off, by not only using art cautiously, but even using his work to thwart evil. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Perhaps the most promising (and brilliant) aspect of Alexenberg’s analysis of the Hebraic consciousness, and of many of his installations and performances, is its forward thinking. Long ago, I lost count of the astonishing and ever-increasing number of blogs Alexenberg has created and authored, and he has embraced Facebook and Twitter like someone a quarter of his age. He sees these new and social media platforms as not only means to publicize his art projects, but also as media that are in their own right Zionist and Jewish networks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It is too early to tell if Alexenberg is right about the impact of new and social media. It will be a long time before we know if the projects stand the test of time. But it is very exciting to see how they, and the Zionist and Jewish artists who are embracing them, are changing the way we think about art and art history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Despite my name — which happens to be Alexenberg’s first name too, it is worth noting — I am not comfortable identifying myself as part of the phenomena I describe above. Nor do I want to stake out a position that is in opposition to the communities of Zionist artists. As an interested bystander and observer, I am fascinated and humbled by what I have observed over the past few years. And thanks to artists like Alexenberg and Rand, and many others like them, I eagerly anticipate what the future will bring. </span></div>
Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-5498362386384735832010-06-01T07:44:00.000-07:002015-06-22T00:17:19.410-07:00Towards a Zionist Art Movement<b>by Alan Kaufman</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Preface</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In 2007, while under contract to the prestigious Himmelberger Gallery of San Francisco, I underwent an experience that transformed me from a painter of Zionist themes to a self-declared Zionist painter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The gallery, which had offered to produce a catalogue of my works withdrew the offer well into the production phase when they saw that I intended to title the catalogue: Visionary Expressionism: A Zionist Art. They also rejected out of hand the Jewish authors who had contributed essays on my paintings, including the Biblical scholar David Rosenberg, the <i>New York Sun</i> columnist David Twersky, Israeli author Etgar Keret, the author and legal scholar Thane Rosenbaum and Polly Zavadivker, a doctoral student in Jewish Studies who had written what I felt was a brilliant and comprehensive overview of my paintings. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The gallery's decision made headlines and articles appeared on the front page of the <i>New York Sun</i> as well as in the pages of <i>The Forward</i>, <i>Jewish Week</i>, <i>The Jewish Bulletin of Northern California</i> and <i>PresenTense</i>. Reactions spread throughout the internet in countless blogs and websites. The Himmelberger controversy served to underscore a development that has continued to grow not only in the cultural sphere at large but in academia and even in the Jewish community as well: the proactive, as well as unspoken, consignment of Zionism to the status of a pariah ideology, a political embarrassment, a social and cultural byword for extremism and injustice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In only six decades since the revelation of the death camps and subsequent establishment of the State of Israel, Zionism, which maintains that the Jewish People must at all costs keep and defend a sovereign Jewish state in the land of Israel, has become to large portions of the world, and even in certain quarters within Israel, an Outlaw point of view. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Astonished, I granted interviews and made public appearances throughout Northern California in various Jewish Community venues to offer my perspectives on the root causes of anti-Zionism in the cultural sphere and in which I called for the formation of a Zionist Arts Movement. To date, few have answered the call. The efforts to delegitimize Zionism have intensified and increased. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In this increasingly one-sided struggle, only a brave few have stepped forward to champion the exploration of Zionism as a creative source. Among these, Mel Alexenberg and Ariel Beery figure most prominently for their constancy of effort and fidelity to the cause. With the exception of Alexenberg, whom I first had the pleasure to encounter many years ago, none but I have deemed themselves a "Zionist Artist". Even the admirers of my paintings have urged me to soften my approach. But I refuse. I remain a Zionist artist to the last. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The following are the sum of my thoughts on the origins of anti-Zionism in the cultural world, with particular emphasis on the visual arts, as well as my understanding of the importance of Zionism and finally how it figures into my painting. They may prove of especial interest for having been formulated in the heat of the events that I have described, involving the gallery and the subsequent media and public reaction. They are, as such, dispatched from the front lines of the effort to affirm a Zionist art.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">I</span></b></span> <br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The young Israeli art historian Avraham Levitt brilliantly shows in his essay ‘Israeli Art On Its Way To Somewhere Else’ (<i>Azure</i>, Winter 5758 / 1998, no. 3), that at some point in the past, around the 1920’s, the still fledgling Zionist arts movement that had been earlier founded by the artist Boris Shatz with the explicit blessing of Theordore Herzl, himself a playwright, and which was housed in Jerusalem at the Bezalel Arts Academy, diverged from its intended mission of inventing, investigating and expressing the brand new Zionist project. Instead, Levitt maintains, Israeli art surrendered to formal and ideological imperatives which not only ignored the central fact of the rebirth of Jewish national existence but at some point proceeded to tear it asunder, and with it, the very premise of Israel, which is Zionism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Let me here briefly sketch out the devolution of Israeli art as Levitt outlines it for it is my intention in launching a Zionist Arts Movement to counter this phenomenon which Levitt identifies. After a mere two decades of Jewish nationalist art, most especially exemplified by the works of Moshe Lilien and Zev Raban, the idealism of Zionist rebirth depicted in their paintings and drawings succumbed in other artists, and at first in a potentially positive way, to an infatuation with local Orientalism and soon, in the canvasses of Israeli painters like Nachum Gutman and Israel Paldi, Arabs began to replace Jews as models for biblical themes and subsequently Jewish content was then rejected altogether in favor of local non-Jewish subjects.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">By the 1930’s, the large numbers of prominent German Jewish artists and intellectuals in flight from Nazism brought with them to pre-State Israel a deep ambivalence towards Zionism, even a kind of disdain. They favored instead the cosmopolitanism and universalism that were the hallmarks of the modernist explosion in Weimar before Hitler, for in the expression and advocacy of modernism many of these Jews had played distinguished roles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">How ironic that luminaries of such urbane outlook should have found themselves rescued from the gas chambers by both Zionism, which they regarded as a parochial ideology, and by a land like Israel, then occupied by the British, and which they deplored as a backwater. The irony was lost upon them. Suffice it to say that they soon occupied positions of prominence in Israeli visual culture and made their negative feelings known in both pedagogy and art. Bezalel which had been closed now reopened in 1935 under the directorship of Joseph Budko, a German Jew and the main language of discourse at the school was not Hebrew but German. This carried forward into the 1940s and in the paintings of Meron Sima, Mordecai Ardon and Leopold Krakauer, one finds reflected a sense of bleakness and to roughly paraphrase Levitt, landscapes devoid of Jewish meaning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Hitler, by the way, was no stranger to modernism. Though he infamously outlawed the great modernist masters in his 1937 exhibit of so-called degenerate art and was himself a failed artist, some think that he may very well have gotten his ideas for concentration camps from the visual images of mass enslaved workers with bowed shaved heads marching in lockstep to work in Fritz Lang’s great 1927 cinematic masterpiece <i>Metropolis</i>. And in general modernism was in the air and was no stranger to facism and at times even served as its footservant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">During World War Two, for instance, Ezra Pound, the much admired American modernist poet, theoretician and advocate of the new painting broadcast anti-Semitic speeches for Mussolini. The poet whom he made it his mission to promote, T.S. Eliot, also an American, is regarded by many as the consummate modernist poet. In his poems Eliot evokes images of Jews so vile that they could have been composed by Josef Goebels, who, by the way, was himself a failed novelist. Eliot is buried in the Poets Corner at Westminster Abbey and his anti-Semitic poems are today widely celebrated and given a principle berth in the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, a staple of college classroom study. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the Italian poet whose Futurist manifesto launched the Futurist movement, aligned himself and his colleagues with the Fascists. The Futurist love of speed, technology and violence was modernist and became central motifs of Moussolini’s regime, which Hitler, in turn, greatly admired and sought to emulate. In the Futurist architecture of Antonio Saint Elia one sees prefigured the National Socialist esthetic of Albert Speer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Look: I could go on and on about the intersection of Modernism with Fascism. My point is to wonder how those German Jews who fled to pre-State Israel could not have seen the deadly contradictions implicit within the esthetic and philosophical paradigm which they so fervently opposed against Zionism. Did not Walter Benjamin himself, the supreme German Jewish champion of modernism, commit suicide at the border between France and Spain, abandoned and alone in a sordid little room, because he could not escape from the Nazis and no one extended any help?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Could these new arrivals to Israel really not see the difference between a homicidal ideology like National Socialism, which had made their own murder its principle goal, and a redemptive program like Zionism which had rescued them from the talons of Hitler? Apparently not, for to them, as to many Jews and Israelis engaged in culture even today, all forms of nationalism are evil. And yet, should we be surprised? For is not a sense of estrangement from oneself and disconnection from all beliefs somehow implicit within Modernism and post-Modernism, which are not only geographically but also spiritually nomadic?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And do we not in fact see in this very day, right here in our own back yard, in the novels, art, films and plays of our own homegrown rootless cosmopolitan American Jewish writers and artists and filmmakers, our greatest critics of Israel and Zionism. Think of Michael Chabon, Art Spiegelman, Tony Kushner, Tony Judt, just to name a few, whose disdain for Jewish nationalism is a matter of public record.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">They oppose against Zionism the alienated modernist and post-modernist urbanity of Manhattan and the Hollywood shtetl and publicly excoriate and vilify the besieged Jewish homeland and all that she represents. Do we not see in their anti-Zionism the very same contemptuous agenda of those displaced German Jewish modernists who not only came to British Mandate-controlled Israel but also to NY, Hollywood and San Francisco too, and today, in the cultural establishments of both Israel and the United States, who but they, the anti-Zionists, hold the reins of Jewish cultural public opinion most firmly in their hands?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But just to carry forward for another moment young Avraham Levitt’s brilliant timeline of the devolution into anti-Zionism of Israeli art. By the 1950s Israeli art had developed a preoccupation with the condition of the Arab rather than of the Jew and with this came an agonized regret over the very idea of Jewish power, even when exercised in self-defense. The greatest examples of this were the German Jewish painter Jakob Steinhardt whose biblically themed works were paeans to imagined Jewish nationalist anguish over the so-called horrors committed by Israel in the name of Zionism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But it was Yitzhak Danziger and his Canaanite movement that sealed the fate of Israeli art for decades to come and sadly this was not at all their intended purpose. In their romance with the land the artists of the Canaanite movement bypassed ancient Israel for earlier civilizations and though the movement emphasized the geographical, geophysical and climactic characteristics of the Israeli landscape in ways intended as a kind of materialist examination of the actual terrain of Israel, Danziger, Rudi Lehman and others succeeded only in negating Jewish nationhood as a legitimate subject for art. They celebrated the land but ignored and later rejected outright the very ideology that justified Jewish habitation: Zionism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Consequently, in short order, a new and explicitly anti-Zionist movement of Tel Aviv artists known as the Horizon Group, lead by the Paris-trained painter Yitzhak Stematsky, had sprung up, and as the Canaanite group was preoccupied with the landscape so the Horizon Group was obsessed with the effects of Israeli light. Thus, in the nineteen forties and fifties, landscape and light, nature itself, a historical materialism rather then Jewish spiritual and political nationhood, became the motifs of Israeli canvasses. Both groups stridently renounced nationalism, and thus Zionism, altogether. So that by the 1960’s such artists as Yigal Tumarkin, a student of Rudi Lehmann’s, could comfortably equate in metaphoric sculptural terms the modern Jewish State with the Crusader conquests.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Paralleling this was the rise in Israeli literature of a group of young authors lead by A. B. Yehoshua and Amos Oz, who became known as “The Generation of the State". In one of Yehoshua’s earliest and best known stories, “Facing the Forests," the author issues a direct challenge to the legitimacy of Israel and no doubt in emulation of Tumarkin likens it, metaphorically, to the Crusader invasion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Thus art leads the way for literature to join the anti-Zionist crusade. And as with the earlier German Jewish painters and their successors in the visual arts, anti-nationalist guilt and shame and a preoccupation with the condition of Arabs rather than with that of Jews, become central concerns of Israeli literature. All this is ushered in under the banner of modernism. And ever since, from Amos Oz, A. B. Yehoshua, Hanoch Levin and now David Grossman, and so many others, the undermining of Zionism as a central premise of Israeli society and culture has gone on, unabated and even at times supported by successive Israeli governments and by the Diaspora communities, who don’t want to be seen as censorious Philistines and frankly don’t know what in the world to do about it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Jewish and Israeli cultural anti-Zionism troubles me even more then that which emanates from non-Jewish quarters. In its exasperated naiveté it reminds me of a press conference I once participated in with the late Allen Ginsberg during the Berlin Jewish Cultural Festival, when he claimed that if only Shirley Temple and Cary Cooper had spoken up, Hitler could have been dissuaded from enacting The Final Solution. In other words, that Betty Grable could easily have stood between one million Jewish children and the ovens at Treblinka and Birkenau. Even the German reporters shook their heads in disbelief at such shocking childishness. It struck us all then as little less then painful, just as I find painful the anti-Zionism of my distinguished colleagues.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Let me tell you: it is no easy thing to be a writer and an artist and to stand before you and to openly proclaim my Zionism. To do so is to stand alone and unrewarded. For Zionism, the most important Jewish development in the modern era has not only fallen into disrepute, even and perhaps especially among us Jews, but has been declared bankrupt, over, dead by large portions of our intelligencia, even as it is violently denounced by our foes. Our historians and thinkers, writers and artists, declare that Zionism is defunct, old hat, corrupt, irrelevant. We are, they say, not even in a post-Zionist period anymore. According to them, even that moment has passed. Where are we then? We are now in a post-identity period, they answer. They would have us become such Jews as Moses Hess, the great pioneering Zionist philosopher despaired of us becoming. In his book European Triarchy, published in 1840, he wrote: “They have renounced their idea of the future.” They wander “like a ghost across the living world…” and can “neither die nor rise again”, for “the rejuvenating principle of Judaism, the Messianic belief, has ceased to exist.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I have a terrible admission to make. Whenever I read in the media a pronouncement that Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran or al-Qaida will strike at Zionists around the globe, wherever they are, I think to myself: “Really? Where will you find them? I’d like to know! Are there any here in San Francisco? Or in Israel?” These days, publicly identifying a Zionist is tougher than locating a cheap flat in New York.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">However, I have a powerful feeling, in fact an urgent sense of certainty, that all this is about to change.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">II</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Zionism is a vision for the Jewish weary of an Otherness so enthralling that today's young Jewish writers and artists must surely take it up, as it is meant to be taken up, as once they took up the Emancipation, the Enlightenment, Chasidism, or Modernism or Postmodernism, and as once upon a time in the shtetls of Eastern Europe, rubbing the dust of oppression from their eyes, they took it up and set forth to build a new Eden, a new World in the Land of Israel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Zionism as a vehicle for artistic expression has never really been fully explored. Until now, it has been, by and large, a political force. That is how it is known in the world today, to Jews and non-Jews.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For writers and artists to embrace Zionism will take enormous courage. For in today's cultural sphere – not only in the United States and Europe but even, to some extent, within Israel herself – anti-Zionism, a vociferous and unremitting critique of Israel and her very right to exist, have become globally de rigueur – a fashionable cultural and political stance that one must adopt and adhere to if one expects to gain credibility and acceptance towards the advancement of ones artistic career, whether one is Jewish or non-Jewish, Israeli or French, British or German.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I myself have experienced this as a writer and artist both, a pressure to conform my opinion and expression to a subtle or overt critique of Israel. The pressure is insistently asserted from every corner of the cultural world, that an Israeli or Jewish-diasporic creative, writing about Israel or things Jewish must, for instance, wear at all times the so-called Israel-Palestinian conflict like a hair shirt. The implied subtext is that Israeli and Jewish Diasporic authors or artists are de facto aparthidists and therefore must demonstrate (to more "enlightened people") that in fact we are capable of decency and conscience. We may prove this by an inescapable referencing of the Palestinians, and with drab but eloquent little chest beatings about our</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">shame and anger over their situation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In this way, propaganda in the guise of a specious moralism has infiltrated, contaminated and crippled the Israeli and Jewish imagination. Sources from without are not solely responsible for this state of affairs, as I have shown. Little wonder that these days novels by Israelis enjoy great popularity in France, currently one of the premier anti-Semitic countries in Europe. A significant proviso of any French publisher contemplating the translation and publication of an Israeli author into French is that the book avoid positive or patriotic reference to the Israel Defense Forces. This, sadly, has not proven to be an obstacle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There are of course notable exceptions, like Agnon and Bialik but they are dead. And neither serve as models for today's young writers and artists, who would not think to consult such influences to guide their own efforts. Most writers and artists today regard Israel as a negative to be deplored or, when possible, avoided. Ask a younger Israeli writer like Savyon Liberecht about her influences and she is more likely to cite F. Scott Fitzgerald than Moshe Shamir. But this alone is insufficient cause to undertake the launching of a Zionist Arts Movement, which I here propose to do. After all, Israel is an established fact, the strongest nation in the Middle East. A song of Anti-Zionist victimization will not hold interest, mine or anyone else's, for very long, rooted though it be in harsh and actual prejudices. Whether or not the current cultural orbit accepts Israel does not matter, ultimately, to her survival. No, what is of greater interest is that, historically-speaking, a true Zionist Arts Movement never really emerged. In some sense, Israeli literature and art, like Jewish American literature and art have yet to produce a truly singular and visionary range of Zionist works.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It is a remarkable state of affairs, considering that the Birth of the State of Israel is without question the most important development in two thousand years of Jewish history. Yet all that we have to show for it in America is a middle-brow paperback, Leon Uris's <i>Exodus</i>. And from out of Israel there has emerged over the years a procession of vaguely interesting works but with the exception of Amichai and Agnon, nothing much that offers very compelling proof of Israeli literary and artistic genius.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I liken this puzzling situation to the condition of American literature in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when its novels and poems were produced under the oppressive influence of Europe. From this issued a trickle of rather uninteresting literary productions (the best among them, James Fennimore Cooper's <i>Last of The Mohicans</i>, frankly makes for a far better film than it did a book).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It was only by a relative casting off of European influence, most notably in the works of Melville, Hawthorne, Whitman, Emerson, Dickenson, Thoreau and others that a truly American literature emerged, in the form of the Transcendentalist movement. I maintain that Zionism is our version of this, a Jewish transcendentalism, woven from the stuff and fiber of Israel and Jewish history, and that this rich vein has gone until now largely unmined.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">At this time there is an emergent Zionist Arts Movement that I can identify but it has, as yet, no real awareness of itself as such. Rather, it is comprised of disparate individuals who, for the most part, may not yet see themselves as belonging to a larger milieu or to any particular movement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But in time, they may. For the Zionist Arts Movement is a seed that does not yet know of the immense forest which it contains: an artistic flourishing couched in a rejection of cultural production predicated upon modern rootlessness; a movement that would create works of art with Zionism as their crucible.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This is a movement that some day will ask: what does a Zionist literature look like, Zionist painting, Zionist dance, Zionist theater? The Zionist Arts Movement is the vision of a new cultural ecology predicated upon the existential centrality to Jewish individual and national existence of Eretz Yisrael.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There are proponents of various features of this vision who are arriving by their own paths to the very same place to which I have come in my work as an author and a painter. Among these are Assaf Inbari, David Rosenberg, Avraham Levitt, Ariel Beery, and the young fledgling scholar Polly Zavadivker. These individuals are groping forward, like sleepwalkers, to one of the most pivotal moments in Jewish History, one that I believe may very well decide our direction as a people, in both Israel and the Diaspora, for the next century and beyond.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I believe that a clouded relationship to Israel and to Zionism among some of our most prominent cultural figures in both Israel and the Diaspora is responsible for our failure, to date, to attain the cultural heights of which we are capable as a people. For though Zionism is our Jewish modernism, our Jewish psychoanalysis, our Jewish Existentialism, we have yet to fully explore its deepest implications in a cultural sense, as I propose that a Zionist Arts Movement will do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In so doing, we will yield cultural masterpieces that will astonish and inspire our people. Love of nation informed the great works of Sophocles, Homer, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Blake, Goya, Turner, Tolstoy, Faulkner and Hugo. Most of all it inspired the greatest writers of all time: the authors of the Bible.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Zionism, taken at its fullest - a prodigious sea change in the understanding of a Jew's relation to the nations, the very idea of society, even Judaism itself, is a radical departure from what we have commonly known, a portal to the future that opens from a doorway in the past and those artists who pass through it will, I believe, create works of universal greatness that will be cherished by the entire world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But in order to undertake such a mission, Jewish artists and writers must rest secure in the moral righteousness of Zionism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What then is Zionism?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">III</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Zionism is the Civil Rights Movement of the Jewish People. It is the answered prayer to two thousand years of ceaseless persecution at the hands of unpredictable host nations and of religions that at times abandoned their own highest moral precepts in the pursuit of dubious political objectives at the expense of Jewish life and limb. For an individual or institution to claim to respect and tolerate Jews and yet deny a Jew, any Jew, the right to proclaim Zionism as a personal spiritual, cultural and political raison d'etre, is like telling a Black person that you regard him as your equal and friend but please, do not mention the March on Birmingham; please, don’t talk about Martin Luther King; please, don’t bring up Rosa Parks to me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Zionism is the March on Birmingham, the Martin Luther King, the Rosa Parks of our people, the Jewish People. It is our march on the death camp at Auschwitz; it is our fight for an equal place on the bus of human history.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And the State of Israel is our Promised Land of freedom and equality on earth. How the term Zionism, and all that it so powerfully represents to our people after the Holocaust; how this term Zionism, this vision of redemption, this philosophy of empowerment, this bright candle held up to the night and which lead back home the displaced and tortured remnants, the dreamers and idealists, the Jews who came from all corners of the earth with a vision of self-determination and cultural, spiritual and political renewal; how this miracle of an idea was brought to fruition through the sacrifice and struggle of the brave Israeli people, is one of the great miracles of human history. And how this same Zionism, distorted and vilified by one of the most sordid</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">disinformation campaigns in history, became the bete noire of the present day, a refugee of a word, a pariah of an idea, is one of the most sordid instances in the long, cruel campaign to marginalize and, ultimately, to destroy the Jewish People.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Let us, then, be perfectly frank about one thing. To vilify, marginalize, suppress or outlaw Zionism politically, socially or culturally, for any reason whatever, is to wish no less then murderous extinction upon every Jewish man, woman and child in the world today. It is to refute our history entire, to deny us the memory of our long march out of bondage into equality and dignity. It is to assert ghettoization and ostracization, exile and massacre as theonly fate befitting a Jew.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If ignorance of the law does not exempt one from the law, then ignorance of the unthinkable consequences to Jews of a world without Israel, and of ones own action to libel, marginalize or censor Zionism in any way, regardless of how subtle or seemingly innocuous, does not exempt anyone, then, from the charge of participation in fostering genocide against the Jewish People. For no less than genocide awaits our people should the present campaign against Zionism succeed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I hereby affirm our right -- moral, spiritual, cultural and political -- to proclaim our Zionism in any manner that we choose, without hinderence or proscription, and further, I condemn, forcefully and completely the stance of anti-Zionism for what so blatently it is: a human rights violation and euphemistic mask behind which lurks the age-old nightmare of anti-Semitism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><b>IV</b> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Israel is to me as Ireland was to James Joyce or Spain to Picasso. Both men created their best work in cosmopolitan centers beyond the borders of the countries they most loved, in order to foster the artistic freedom and independent perspective that would enable them to look back at Ireland and Spain with fresh new eyes and to present those nations and peoples, their symbols and even language, in completely new ways, through experimental visual art and literature. James Joyce wrote in 'Portrait of the Artist': “I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can, and as wholly as I can, using . . . silence, exile, and cunning.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">As a dual national, Israeli and American, born in New York City but also a citizen of Israel and a proud veteran of the Israel Defense Forces, I am in exile from two places at once, Israel and America, for as George Orwell said, in respect to someone who has called two countries home: when walking down the street of one, often you are thinking of the other. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">San Francisco, where I reside, is not really like the rest of the United States -- an undefinable center of radical artistic and social innovation. From here successive waves of radical cultural change have emerged, from the Beats to Abstract Expressionism, the 60's Be-Ins and San Francisco Sound, to Low-Brow Art, The Beautiful Losers movement and Shepard Faery. In a certain regard, San Francisco is my Paris. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It is also an epicenter of ant-Zionism, a community proactively opposed to Zionism, which I do not even consider an ideology so much as the expression of an obvious historical truth: that a Jewish People without a homeland and an army exclusively our own are doomed to perish. As such, San Francisco is a kind of constant and palpable countervailing force opposed to that which I most believe, the whetting stone upon which I sharpen my pen and hone my Zionist brush.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If I am in self-imposed artistic exile from the two places that most serve as the inspiration for my work, Israel and America, also I am both a painter and an author. In addition to appearing in galleries in one man and group shows, I have published well-received books with major American and British publishers about Israel and The Holocaust. My paintings are not a departure from my writings but rather an extension of them into another medium, for my paintings begin at the edge of where my literature stops. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">My paintings express what I cannot find language for. They exist in the realm of pure vision, beyond words. They are what I find lies hidden at my essence as a Jew: the colors of the desert and of clay, of fire and of blood. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Thus, my paintings burn with the colors of heat: red, pink, magenta, crimson, and sand-inspired gradations of brown, burnt sienna, beige. They are the colors of Sinai in which Moses wandered and saw visions, of sunset over Masada (which I first visited during time spent on kibbutz); of the red desert heat of the Negev where I served as an IDF soldier and of Sderot, which experiences daily rocket attacks and whose suffering I think of as I walk the streets of San Francisco. They are the colors of Ashdod where my Israeli daughter Isadora was raised and of Jerusalem where I lived for many years, the color that the city turns at dusk as the sun sets. They are the color of the blood spilled by my soldier brothers fallen in defense of the Jewish State, who served with me in the IDF and gave their lives for their people. They are the color of the fires of the Holocaust during which my mother hid and fled from the Nazis for five terrible years, in France and later in Italy. They are the red fiery hues of Mosaic vision and imagination, for it is well known that red is associated with creativity but in its darker hues, it is the primary color, as I see it, of History. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">My paintings tend to fall into several categories. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">A) Prophetic landscapes of the unconscious realms of Israeli and Jewish experience, such as the birth of the Jewish State, the Holocaust, the dreams, hopes and fears that lie beneath our historical experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">B) Portraiture of imaginary Israelis conjured out of my unconscious and who, simultaneously, inhabit two realms: both modern and ancient Israel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">C)Depictions of internal states, such as the moment between waking and sleeping. There are also strong intimations of the supernatural, of ghosts that inhabit my canvasses, struggling for release. Who are these ghosts? The anonymous millions of Jews in mass graves? The ghosts of past Jews slaughtered in foreign lands? Ghosts of IDF soldiers lost in battle? My compulsion to paint them, evoke them, haunts and drives me with whispering but irresistable force. Perhaps it is expression of a state of constant grief for my lost Jewish brothers and sisters on the shoulders of whose sacrifices I have come to exist.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">D) Explorations of Jewish identity, especially vis a vis the struggles encountered with antisemitism and stereotyping.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">My painting technique is one that I have developed after long experimentation and that has as much parallel in the frottage methods of Max Ernst as to the exploratory brushworks of DeKooning and the conceptual illuminated strivings of Mark Rothko. My most deeply felt painting influences are Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollack, Max Beckman, Chaim Soutine, David Newman, Milton Resnik, Hans Hoffman, Barnet Newman. My painting method is my own invention, entailing the use of fluorescent acrylics, charcoals, machine oil, lead pencil, and various mediums such as Galkyd and Meglip. In combination, they create a slow-drying surface upon which I reflect for long periods of time until able to perceive the slowly emerging shape of visions that result from the slowly catalyzing surface. It is the materials encountering my inner eye that produces my work, a meeting of the unconscious with the accidental canvas--a method that is metaphor for the process of history, or even of creation itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Many shades of warm pinks, corrals, reds, oranges, magentas such as suffuse Israel's landscape inform my paintings and as I've discovered, they are the colors which I find when I look deeply within myself, the colors of my love for Israel, my fellow Israelis and Diaspora Jews, the colors of my passion for art and literature: the color of the heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: blue;">About the Artist</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Alan Kaufman is an Israeli-American painter and author. He has hung in both one man and group shows at Himmelberger Gallery, a prestigious Union Square Gallery in San Francisco and Art@324 Gallery in The Chelsea Fine Arts Building in New York City's Chelsea District, hub of the New York Art World. He is a former instructor at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He has also hung in numerous group shows and is in numerous private collections in the United States and Israel. His novels include the critically acclaimed memoir <i>Jew Boy</i> (Fromm/FSG) and <i>Matches</i> (Little, Brown/Time-Warner Books), <i>The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry</i> (Basic Books/Perseus) and <i>The Outlaw Bible of American Literature</i> (Basic Books/Perseus). Kaufman also writes on literature and art for <i>The San Francisco Chronicle</i>, <i>The Los Angeles Times</i>, <i>Huffington Post</i>, <i>Evergreen Review</i>, <i>Hi-Fructose</i> and many other prominent national publications.</span>Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-41158819611890645162010-04-09T00:47:00.000-07:002015-06-22T00:18:22.763-07:00להיות אמן ציוני בעולם מרושת<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">מנחם אלכסנברג</span><br />
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נס יציאת מצרים ושחרור מאות אלפים בני עם אחד מכור העבדות אחרי מאות שנות גלות , מחוויר בעיני לעומת הנס הציוני בן זמננו ,שחרור מיליוני יהודים מרדיפות, פוגרומים ושואה בעשרות ארצות, לאחר 2000 שנות גלות ושיבה לציון. הבחירה באפשרות להיות שותף מלא לנס ציוני זה, הינה הזדמנות שובת לב לאמן, הזדמנות חסרת תקדים בהיסטוריה העולמית.</div>
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שאבתי השראה רבה מהאתגר הציוני שהציב הרב אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק ל"חדש את הישן ולקדש את החדש" בזמן שבחנתי את המגוון הרחב של הממשקים שבין המבנה של התודעה היהודית, התממשות החזון הציוני בארץ ישראל והכיוון החדש של האומנות המתחדש ביצירתיות פוסט – דיגיטאלית בעולם מרושת. המקור לציוניות שלי נובע משורשי ומערכיי היהודיים בעוד שהתוכן והצורה של אומנותי נובעים מהחוויה והמחשבה</div>
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היהודית בעולם מרושת שבו האומנות, המדע, הטכנולוגיה והתרבות מתייחסים זה לזה.</div>
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כאומן שנולד והתחנך בארה"ב בחרתי לעזוב את הארץ אשר אהבתי, ואשר נתנה לי אפשרויות מקצועיות נהדרות, כדי להפוך לחלק מהיוזמה הציונית המתירה לי לשקוע עמוק יותר אל תוך חיי היהודיים במרכזה. הציונות שואפת להבטחת עתידו וייהודו של העם היהודי על ידי טיפוח ערכי רוח ותרבות יהודיים במולדתו ההיסטורית (ההסתדרות הציונות העולמית, תוכנית ירושלים, תשס"ד) כאומן ציוני אני שואף ליצור הן דיאלוג אינטימי עם העם היהודי והן דיון ערני עם אנשים ברחבי העולם.</div>
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הסיפור המקראי של האומה היהודית מתחיל במסע השחרור של אברהם בעוברו מהעבר המוכר לעבר חזון מרענן של עתיד בארץ חדשה. אכן, אברהם נקרא עברי, אשר משמעות השם מרמזת על מַעַבר אל עֵבר מציאות חדשה. אברהם מצווה "לך לך מארצך וממולדתך ומבית אביך אל הארץ אשר אראך" (בראשית י"ב. א'). ניתן לפרש את הציווי הזה גם כ- "לך עם עצמך האמיתי והתרחק מכל המקומות המוכרים והנוחים שמגבילים את החזון, אל הארץ שבה תוכל לראות בחופשיות". הלך הרוח העברי הדינמי נוסד כדרכים חדשות הנובעות מהמיזוג של המסע שלנו אל ארץ ישראל עם החיפוש הפנימי שלנו אחרי משמעויות רוחניות. </div>
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האנרגיה הנפשית שנדרשה מאברהם בעזבו עבר מיושן והמעבר מגבולות קונספטואליים אל עבר עתיד לא קונבנציונאלי היוו מסר חשוב עבורי, כאמן ציוני החי במדינה יהודית דמוקרטית בעידן פוסט – דיגיטאלי. היום, בישראל וכן בתרבויות המהוות את חוד החנית בהתקדמות המדעית, אנחנו מתחילים לעבור מהתרבות הדיגיטאלית של עידן האינפורמציה לעידן הקונספטואלי, שבו אנשים בכל תחומי החיים יצליחו ביותר אם הם יתנהגו כמו אמנים המשלבים את החשיבה של האונה השמאלית של המוח,הממונה על היצירתיות עם זו של האונה הימנית הממונה על ארגון המידע. פועלי חרושת של העידן התעשייתי ועובדי ידע של העידן האינפורמטיבי מוחלפים בידי יוצרים ויזמים של העידן הקונספטואלי, המשלבים יכולות של טכנולוגיית על, עם יכולות של "מגע-על" ו "קונספט – על" בעלות משמעויות אסטטיות ורוחניות.1</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">אמנות נגד אמנות</span> </div>
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החתירה תחת עבודת האלילים עם קמצוץ אירוניה הייתה המשימה של היהודים מראשית היותם. כהקדמה לסיפור המקראי של אברהם המתחיל את מסעו מהעולם האלילי של בית אביו אל עבר ארץ ישראל, המדרש מלמד אותנו שאברהם עבד כזבן בחנות הפסלים של אביו. הוא לקח מחבט גדול וניפץ את הפסלים שהיו בחנות. הוא השאיר על כנו את הפסל הגדול ביותר, והותיר בידיו את המחבט. כאשר אביו חזר ההלם שאחז בו כשראה את ההרס הרב הפך לזעם כאשר הוא דרש הסבר מבנו הצעיר. אברהם הסביר איך הפסל הגדול שבר את כל שאר הפסלים. הוא יכול היה להרוס את כל הפסלים מבלי להשאיר מישהו להאשים. פסל השובר את שאר הפסלים מסמן לנו את הדרך ליצירת אמנות מזלזלת, אומנות ששואפת לערער את ההערצה העיוורת לאמנות, אמנות שקוראת תיגר על הקנון המבוסס של האומנות המערבית.</div>
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אני מעוניין ביצירה שתזעזע את האמנות מהיסוד שלה על ידי הצגת ספקות יצירתיות לא רק כלפי נושא (סובייקט) האומנות, אלא גם כלפי מטרתה. בספרו על ציירים אמריקאים במאה העשרים, אורי סולטיס מתייחס לסדרת הציורים, קולאז'ים, תדפיסי מחשב, הדפסי משי, ליטוגרפיות ואירועי הטלקומוניקציה שלי הערכה דיגיטאלית לרמברנט והוא כותב: "אלכסנברג מציב דמויות צלמיות מהמסורת האומנותית הנוצרית: מלאכו של רמברנט הנאבק עם יעקב. אולם הוא משנה ומעוות אותו, הופך אותו לדיגיטאלי ומבתר אותו לחלקים, הופך את המסורת המערבית המקובלת שבתוך מסגרתה הוא עובד תוך כדי זה שהוא מתמרד נגדה."2</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">אמנות היוצאת מתודעה עברית ולא הלניסטית</span></div>
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כאמן ציוני, אני מצטרף לאמנים בעולם כולו המנסים לשחרר את האמנות מהשליטה ההלניסטית מאז תחייתה בתקופת הרנסאנס. המאה העשרים הייתה מאה של מודרניזם אשר שאפה לערער את ההגדרה ההלניסטית של האמנות. המאה העשרים ואחת מזמינה הגדרה מחודשת לאמנות המושתתת על שורשיה העבריים של התרבות המערבית, ולא על אלה ההלניסטיים.</div>
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יוון וישראל הינן שתי האומות אשר השקפת עולמן השפיעה רבות על הדרכים בהן אנחנו חושבים או פועלים. כל אחת מהן, מזווית כל כך שונה, הטביעה בנו את חותם הגאונות והתבונה שלה. אין שתי ערים בעולם שהשפיעו על האנושות יותר מאתונה וירושלים. המסר הדתי, פילוסופי ואומנותי מהווים עמודי התווך לדתות ולתרבויות מודרניות."3</div>
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השקפת העולם ההלניסטית משתקפת במילה אמנות בשפות האירופאיות השונות: art באנגלית ובצרפתית, arte בספרדית Kunst בגרמנית והולנדית, iskustvo ברוסית, וכדו'. השורש לכל המילים האלו קשור למלכותי</div>
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artificial)) חיקוי, דמיוני או זיוף. בניגוד לכך, המילה העברית לאֹמן נכתבת בדיוק כמו אַמֵן, שפירושו אמת. בצורה הנשית, אמונה, והפועל לאמן פירושו לטפח ולחנך.</div>
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ההגדרה ההלניסטית של אמנות כחיקוי, שעתוק של הטבע, הקפאת הזרימה , הפכה ללא רלוונטית ומיושנת כשההגדרות החדשות לאמנות נבטו דרך החשיבה והפעילות היהודית החוקרת את הנושאים של אמת, אמונה וחינוך כפי שהם מעשירים את חיי היום יום. בספרו הקלאסי של באומן " חשיבה יהודית בהשוואה ליוונית", החשיבה היהודית מוגדרת כ"דינאמית, נמרצת, מלאת תשוקה ומהסוג הנפיץ; ובאותו היחס, החשיבה היוונית הינה סטטית, שלווה, מתונה, ומהסוג ההרמוני."4 העובדה שהשורשים העבריים של התרבות המערבית, ולא אלה היוונים, הם אלו המגדירים מחדש את האמנות בעולם המרושת המתפתח במהירות .</div>
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תהליך זה נידון בהרחבה בספרי עתיד האמנות בעידן דיגיטאלי: מתודעה יוונית לתודעה עברית .5 ובגרסתו בעברית אמנות דיאלוגית בעולם דיגיטאלי: ארבעה מסות על היהדות והאמנות המודרנית.6</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">האמנות חושפת את הכוח של האותיות העבריות בעידן הדיגיטאליות</span></div>
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אחד ההישגים הגדולים של המפעל הציוני הינו החייאת השפה העברית והפיכתה לשפה יום יומית המאחדת את כל היהודים השבים למולדתם, הדוברים מגוון רחב של שפות שונות. ישנו כוח יפה ורוחני בהתבוננות באותיות העבריות הרוקדות על פני חזיתות החנויות במדינה יהודית, המרצדות על מרקעי הטלוויזיה, לשימוש בגוגל או לשלוח SMS באותיות עבריות מהווה משמעות מיוחדת עבורי כאמן. נאמר על אמן המשכן, בצלאל, שהיו לו כוחות רוחניים מיוחדים לצרף את 22 האותיות של האלף-בית העברי כדי ליצור עולמות חדשים. העידן הדיגיטאלי הופך את המושג הקבלי של היצירה האמנותית דרך יצירת תמורות של ביטים של אינפורמציה למשהו שאיננו מוזר ותמוה.. מדעי המחשב, ולא המיסטיקה , הפיזיקה ולא המטה-פיזיקה אפשרו לנו לחשוף בזמננו את החכמה הקדומה. כל כמות המילים, הצלילים והתמונות שהפכו להיות ברי השגה תודות לרשת האינטרנט, CD או DVD, מקודדים כביטים המקושרים יחד בקבוצות של שמונה יחידות הנקראות בייטים. התמורות האפשריות ל256 ביטים בכל בייט אחד מתקשרים יחד ליצור מיליארדי קומבינציות שונות שאנו מקבלים כדף אינטרנט, משחק מחשב, עמוד טקסט, שיר או סרט.</div>
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המסורת היהודית רואה את 22 האותיות הקדושות של האלף בית העברי כבעלי כוחות רוחניים, ראשוניים, ועמוקים, חומר הגלם של היצירה. האפשרויות השונות לסידור האותיות במילים מביאות לידי ביטוי את התערובות השונות של הכוחות הרוחניים המקבילים למערכות הטבעיות שבהם מספרים שונים של פרוטונים, נויטרונים או אלקטרונים יוצרים יחד אטומים שונים המרכיבים יחד את 92 יסודות הכימיה. האטומים האלו, בתורם, מתחברים יחדיו למולקולות, והמולקולות למולקולת על כמו ה DNA, שבו מוצפנים כל צורות החיים באמצעות ארבע אותיות בלבד: A-T, T-A C-G,ו G-C. ההשפעה ההדדית בין הקומבינציות והתמורות של האותיות העבריות בתחום הרוחני, של אטומים בתחום הפיזי, ושל ביטים ובייטים בתחום המדיה הדיגיטאלית, מספקים חומרי גלם ליצירת יצירות אומנות שמחוללים דיאלוג ער בין העבר היהודי והעתיד של ישראל כמרכז לטכנולוגיות דיגיטאליות וביולוגיות.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">אמנות החושפת את המימדים הרוחניים של חיי היום יום בארץ ישראל</span></div>
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החטא הנורא של עשרת מנהיגי השבטים שקיבלו את המשימה לתור את הארץ אחרי יציאת מצרים היה חוסר היכולת שלהם להבחין בהבדל בין העבודה הקשה כעבדים במצרים לבין העבודה הקשה בבניית הארץ שלהם. רק יהושע וכלב עמדו במשימה. התורה מתארת לנו את כלב " עֵקֶב הָיְתָה רוּחַ אַחֶרֶת עִמּוֹ" (במדבר י"ד, כ"ד). שלא כמו האחרים, הוא היה מסוגל לבצע את השינוי התבניתי ולהבחין בכך שהאתגר שיש במגורים בארץ ישראל הוא מציאת הרוחניות הנמצאת בכל פן בחיי היום יום. </div>
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עשרת המרגלים בחרו להישאר במדבר שם הם יוכלו לחיות חיים רוחניים מלאים בלימוד תורה כל יום. הם לא צריכים לעבוד, מאחר והאוכל מסופק להם כל יום בחינם לפתח אוהלם. בארץ ישראל הם יהיו חייבים לעבוד קשה ולגדל את האוכל שלהם, לבנות בתים, להלחם באויבים ולאסוף את הזבל, חיים שנראים כמו חזרה לתקופת העבדות שממנה הם נמלטו לא מכבר. עשרת המרגלים הללו נידונו למוות במדבר בשל חוסר יכולתם לראות שהרוחניות עולה מתוך האיכות של מפגשו של כל אחד ואחד עם העולם החומרי. צאצאי כלב, שבט יהודה, היוו כמעט את כל היהודים שהייתה להם את הזכות לחזור אל מולדתם ולבנות אותה מחדש 3500 שנה </div>
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אחרי אירוע זה. רוב צאצאי עשרת המרגלים, שלא הייתה להם את אותה ה"רוח אחרת" התבוללו ונעלמו במרוצת השנים.</div>
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בן שבטו של כלב הוא אב הטיפוס של אמן יהודי = בצלאל, שקבע את המדיניות ואת הדרך של האמנות הציונית בכך שיצר סביבה שמשלבת רוח וחומר ומאפשרת קיום הפסוק– "כי ה' אלהיך מתהלך בקרב מחניך... והיה מחניך קדוש "(דברים כ"ג:ט"ו) אני הזמנתי סטודנטיות מבית הספר לאומנויות של מכללת אמונה בירושלים ומהמרכז האוניברסיטאי יהודה ושומרון באריאל לחשוף את הקודש על ידי צילומים של אור אלוקי הנובע מחיי היום יום בישראל. יצרתי בלוג רשת המראה את עבודת http://www.photographgod.com</div>
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אנו יכולים להעריך את השקפת העולם השונה של כלב דרך החוויה של הרבי מסדיגורה, הרב אברהם פרידמן (1884-1961). הנאצים ניסו להשפיל את הרב בעיני חסידיו על ידי כך שאילצו אותו, באיומי רובה, לעבוד כל היום בטאטוא הרחובות ואיסוף זבל, ובלילה לצעוד תוך כדי נפנוף הדגל הנאצי. הרב שרד את השואה ועלה לישראל, לתל אביב, שם בשבוע שחל יום העצמאות נהג לקום כל בוקר מוקדם ולהצטרף לאנשי התברואה של תל אביב בטאטוא רחובות העיר ובלילה הוא נראה צועד ברחובות תל אביב מניף את דגל ישראל. הוא התפעל מהזכות הגדולה של ניקוי העיר וכיבוד הדגל הלאומי.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">האמנות מעבירה את המסר שלה דרך צורה ותיווך ומדיום</span></div>
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בתחילת המאה העשרים, האמנים הציונים הראשונים אפרים משה ליליאן ובוריס שץ, והתיאורטיקנים של התרבות מרטין בובר ואחד העם ראו את האמנות הציונית רק במונחים של תוכן ואקוניגרפיה7. הנופים של ארץ ישראל, נושאים יהודיים וסצנות מקראיות שלקחו את הבדואים כדוגמא מצוינת ליהודים העתיקים היוו את התוכן של יצירות האומנות שלהם שהביאו לידי ביטוי את הצורות והמדיה האירופאית הזרה. אומנים ציוניים ראשונים אלו לא שחררו את עצמם מההגדרות ההלניסטיות של האומנות שהעיבה על המודעות היהודית שלהם בעקבות שנים שבהם טפטפו להם אותה במהלך מגוריהם באירופה.</div>
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החשיבות של הצורה והמדיום בחיים היהודיים כל כך גדולה שהיא גוררת מספר דברים, לדוגמא אנחנו קוראים בתורה בבית כנסת רק מתוך ספר תורה הכתוב בכתב יד על קלף. אם אין לנו ספר תורה כשר אנחנו לא קוראים בכלל, ולא קוראים את אותו התוכן מתוך תנ"ך מודפס בעל אותיות דפוס רגילות. המסורת מלמדת אותנו איך היהודים שועבדו בליבון לבנים, (מלבן) שמשמעות הדבר היא גם מפעל ליצור לבנים, אך גם הצורה הגיאומטרית מלבן. התורה הכלואה בתוך מלבן, בין שתי כריכות איננה יכולה להעביר את המסר של החירות, הבא לידי ביטוי בזרימה החופשית של גלילי התורה. הלב של התורה הוא המקום בו האות האחרונה בתורה, הל' של ישראל, מתחברת עם האות הראשונה בתורה, הב' של בראשית בזרימה מתמשכת. שינוי בצורה או במדיום ישנה באופן משמעותי את המסר. תורה הנכתבת על נייר אורז יפני היא מוזרה, ואחת שנכתבת על עור חזיר תהווה סימן ברור לאנטישמיות. אמנים ציוניים עכשוויים יכולים לזהות את ההקבלות הברורות שבין שני גלילי התורה והסליל הכפול של ה- DNA שבה מקודד קוד החיים, וכך גם הסימול של האין סוף.</div>
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כדי לבחון את הצורה והתוכן בחשיבה ובחוויה היהודית, הזמנתי אמנים עמיתים במרכז ללימודים חזותיים מתקדמים ב MIT לשתף איתי פעולה במיז LightsOROT: מימדים רוחניים של העידן האלקטרוני8, תערוכה שנערכה בישיבה אוניברסיטה בניו יורק. יצירת אומנות בתוך העידן הדיגיטאלי, בעולם מרושת, פותחת בפני האמנים הציוניים הזדמנויות חסרות תקדים להמציא צורות אומנות אלטרנטיביות ולחקור ממשקי מדיה חדשים עם המבנה של התודעה היהודית.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">אומנות המחקה את הבורא במקום את הבריאה</span></div>
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כאמן יהודי אני מעוניין להיות שותף פעיל בבריאת היקום בתהליך המתמשך של בריאת עולמות חדשים. לתפישת עולמי , הערך העליון של האמנות איננו החזון ההלניסטי של חיקוי הטבע המושלם והאידיאלי, החשיבות היא בהדמיה של תהליך היצירה עצמו. בספרי חוויה אסטטית בתהליך9 יצירה ,בחנתי את תהליך היצירה באומנות ובמדע מנקודת מבט פסיכו-דינאמית . </div>
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השליט הרומי ששלט בארץ ישראל במאה ה-2 לספירה שאל את רבי עקיבא, "מה יותר נעלה ויפה, יצירת האדם או יצירת האל?" המושל הופתע מתשובתו של רבי עקיבא, שיצירת האדם עולה בערכה על היצירה השמימית. בעוד הרומאי תמה על התשובה המפתיעה של הרב, הרב הגיש לו צלחת של גרעיני חיטה, בעוד שלעצמו לקח הרב פרוסת עוגה. הרומאי הנבוך שאל "מדוע לך אתה לוקח עוגה, בעוד לי אתה מגיש גרגירי חיטה?" רבי עקיבא ענה לו, "אתה מעדיף את יצירת האל, אני מעדיף את יצירת האדם!"</div>
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הרב אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק, (1935- 1865) הרב הראשי הראשון של ארץ ישראל ומייסד ישיבת מרכז הרב בירושלים, מספק מניפסט פואטי לאומן הציוני הנגזר מהמבנה העמוק של התודעה היהודית. </div>
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"מי שיש לו נשמה של יוצר מוכרח להיות יוצר רעיונות ומחשבות... כי שלהבת הנשמה עולה היא מאליה ואי אפשר לעצור אותה ממהלכה . המחדש העליון איננו מחדש, כי אם מעתיק, מביא אורות חדשים חיים ממקום עליון מקורי, אל המקום שעוד לא היו שם,ממקום "לא ידעו עיט ולא שזפתו איה, אשר עבר ב ה איש ולא ישב אדם שם" 10 </div>
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הרב יוסף דוב סולובייצ'יק,(1903-1993) אשר שימש כנשיא תנועת המזרחי באמריקה הגה את הרעיון שחלום של יצירה הינו הרעיון המרכזי בתודעה היהודית – הרעיון של שיתוף פעולה אנושי עם בורא העולם ביצירת עולמות חדשים. וכך הוא כותב: </div>
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"כשאדם רוצה להגיע למדרגת קדושה, הרי עליו ליהפך ליוצר עולמות.אם אין האדם יוצר ומחדש-אין הוא מתקדש לאלוהיו. הטיפוס הפסיבי, המתעצל במלוי תעודת היצירה ,אינו מתקדש.יצירה-זוהי הורדת הטרנסצנדנטיות לתוך עולמנו העכור , החומרי והגס. 11</div>
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אני מנסה להפוך לשותף בבריאה בששת ימי המעשה, אולם, אני עוצר את עבודתי היצירתית יום אחד בשבוע, ופוסע צעד אחורה כדי להתפעל ולכבד את מלאכת ידיו של בורא היקום. יום שבתון זה הוא גם יום ללא אמנות והוא יום אקולוגי. ברצוני לצעוד בעקבות האמנים שעצרו את מלאכת , הקמת המשכן בשבת.</div>
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" את שבתותי תשמורו ומקדשי תיראו "- מכאן שנאסרה עבודת המשכן בשבת.</div>
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לאחרונה ,קיבלתי הזמנה לדואר האלקטרוני שלי ,הזמנה לסוף שבוע של יצירה אומנותית בהרי יהודה (בימים חמשי שישי ושבת ) כתבתי ליוזמי הרעיון שזה בדיוק ההיפך מהכוונה המקורית של יום השבת .הצעתי להם ליצור בימים חמישי ושישי ובשבת להתענג על יפי הבריאה .</div>
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אני נוצר את פעולותיי האומנותיות ביום השביעי וחוגג יום ללא אמנות. אכן, כל נושא שמירת השבת מוגדר על ידי פעילויות יצירתיות, על ידי 39 קטגוריות של אמנויות שונות שהיו קשורות בהקמת המשכן. משקיעת החמה בערב יום שישי ועד לצאת הכוכבים במוצאי שבת, אני חוגג יום ללא אומנות וגם יום אקולוגי, שבו אני משאיר את העולם כפי שקיבלתי אותו. בשבת אני מטעין מחדש את המצברים הרוחניים שלי, כך שביום השמיני אוכל לחזור עם כוחות מחודשים למלא את תפקיד השותף לבורא בתיקון העולם, שיפור אקטיבי של העולם והפיכתו למקום טוב יותר עבור האנושות כולה.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">אמנות כתורתך שעשועי</span><br />
כאמן אני מיישב את יחסי לתורה על פי הפסוק "לולא תורתך שעשועי " (תהילים) הן דרך החוויה התפיסתית והן דרך החוויה האסטטית. התורה עצמה מלמדת אותנו לעסוק בה ברוח של שעשוע. בתהילים קצי"ט: קע"ד כתוב: "ותורתך שעשועי" שעשוע הינו צעצוע המשמש למשחק ילדים. במשלי ח': ל'-ל"א שלמה המלך משמיע את קול התורה במילים "ואהיה (התורה ) שעשעים יום יום משחקת לפניו בכל-עת. משחקת בתבל ארצו ושעשעי את-בני אדם" ההסבר,( שהתורה היא זו שמדברת כאן).</div>
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אני מושפע בהבנת פסוקים אלו מפתיחת בראשית רבה : כאמן מומחה, שיחק משחק יצירתי עם התורה, תוכנית האב שלו ליצירת היקום. מדרש רבה משתמש בשני הפסוקים האלו ממשלי כדי להסביר את המלה הראשונה בתורה "בראשית ברא ה'" ה' ברא קודם כל את הראשית, כלומר את התורה, כתוכנית אב, לא מוגבלת, ליצירת העולם. כפי שניתן לראות מפסוק מוקדם יותר בפרק, משלי ח', כ"ב: "ה' קנני (את התורה) ראשית דרכו קדם מפעליו אז" בחיקוי אנושי לתענוגות האלוקיות, אנחנו מוזמנים לשחק עם התורה כשאנחנו יוצרים עולמות חדשים. מכאן אני מקבל את הכח היצירתי ,רוחני שלי לעסוק באמנות .</div>
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הרב אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק כתב מכתב ברכה ליסוד בית הספר לאומנויות בצלאל בירושלים ב 1906. במכתבו משתמש הרב קוק באלגוריה בהתייחסו לתחיית האומנות ב- 1906 וחוש האסטטיקה היהודי אחרי אלפיים שנות גלות כילדה מחוסרת הכרה המתעוררת ומבקשת את בובתה: . </div>
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"הילדה הנעימה והאהובה, הבת הנחמדה, שאחרי מחלה ארוכה וממושכת, גם נואשת, אחרי מראה של פנים חוורים כסיד, שפתיים כמראה התכלת, חם בוער כתנור, סימור ופרפור צמרורי, הנה פקחה את עיניה ותפתח שפתיה הסגורות חותם צר, הידיים הקטנות מתנועעות בתנועה של חיים, האצבעות הדקות וצחות הולכות אנה ואנה ,הן מבקשות את תפקידן. השפתיים נעות , כמעט שבות למראה בשר , וקול כאוב מהן נשמע" אמא, אמא, בובה, תני לי הבובה,הבובה החביבה שזה זמן כביר לא ראיתיה " . קול ששון וקול שמחה, הכל שמחים , האב והאם, האחים והאחיות, גם הזקן והזקנה שכבר שכחו מרב שנים גם </div>
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את משחקי הילדות של בניהם"12</div>
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הרב קוק ראה באמנים בפעולתם בארץ ישראל סימן מובהק ללידתו מחדש של של עם ישראל בארץ מולדתו. "הרוח החיונית שלהם אשר טיפחה את הרגישות ליופי "תרומם נפשות מדוכאות, ותיתן להם השקפות ברורות ומאירות על היופי של החיים, הטבע והעבודה". 13</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">אמנות מחנכת דרך מדרש חזותי</span><br />
לא זו בלבד שהמילים אומן ולאמן (לחנך) קשורים זה בזה, אלא שהתורה מלמדת אותנו שבצלאל ואהליאב התברכו במתת אלוה בכישורים אמנותיים המשולבים עם היכולת ללמד (שמות ל"ה: ל'-ל"ד). תהליך יצירת האמנות יכול להוות דרך אלטרנטיבית ללימוד תורה המהדר את מצוות הלימוד דרך יצירת מדרש חזותי. המדרש הינו צורת ספרות יהודית ייחודית המשלב פרשנות, אגדה והסבר נרטיבי לסיפורים מקראיים. בצורה מסוימת, המדרש משלים את החללים שבין המילים הכתובות, כדי לחשוף משמעויות עמוקות יותר של המקרא. האמנות כמדרש חזותי מספקת פרשנות חדשנית לטקסטים מקראיים דרך חוויות מולטי-מדיות שמותחות את המשמעות המילולית של הטקסט אל התחום הוויזואלי. קונטקסט, במשמעותו הראשונית זה " "עםהטקסט",14בזמן שקונטקסט הוא גם ההקשר המאפיין המגדיר את האמנות הפוסט מודרנית.15 </div>
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כדי להבין יותר טוב את ההקשר התרבותי של הערכים שלי כאמן ציוני בעידן של גלובליזציה, הזמנתי מורי אמנות מפורסמים מרחבי העולם להגדיר את האומנות ואת החינוך לאומנות בנקודות הממשק החופפות שבהן המחקר המדעי והטכנולוגיות החדשניות מעצבות את הערכים האסטטיים והתרבותיים – הן בתחום המקומי והן בתחום הגלובאלי. חקירה זו הסתכמה בספרי חינוך אומני העתיד: לימוד בצומת האמנות, המדע, הטכנולוגיה והתרבות.16 </div>
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התורה מתארת שני אבות טיפוס לאמן היהודי: בצלאל ואהליאב. "ראה קראת בשם בצלאל בן אורי בן חור למטה יהודה. ואמלא אותו רוח אלוקים בחכמה ובתבונה ובדעת ובכל מלאכה..."(שמות ל"א, ב') הפירוש המילולי של השם בצלאל הוא בצל האל בן אש לוהטת (אורי) בן החופש (חור). שם זה נותן כבוד לתשוקה ולחופש הביטוי של האמן. התורה מתארת את שותפו של בצלאל למלאכת הקמת המשכן: "ואני הנה נתתי איתו את אהליאב בן אחיסמך למטה דן ובלב כל חכם לב נתתי חכמה " (שמות ל"א, ו') שוב, אם נסתכל על הפירוש המילולי של המילים נקבל את האהל שבו ניתן לסמוך על האב, הבן והאח, שילוב של העכשווי עם העבר ועם העתיד, אב בן ואח עומדים יחד עם האמן באוהל משותף של תמיכה הדדית. בצלאל מייצג את הכוח הפסיכולוגי של האמן, בעוד שאהליאב מייצג את ההשלכות החברתיות על הקהילה. בעבודתם המשותפת הם יוצרים סביבה משותפת של כוחות רוחניים.</div>
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אשתי, האמנית מרים בנימין, ואנכי, שיתפנו פעולה עם קשישים ועם צעירים ממגוון קהילות אתניות שונות כדי ליצור את " כס המורשת" יצירה ענקית של אמנות ציבורית במיאמי.17 בישראל, הקמנו בירוחם את המכון לאמנות בחיים היהודים שמטרתו היתה לחנך מורי אמנות שיעבדו במרכזים קהילתיים. גרנו בירוחם במשך שבע שנים שבהן עבדנו בהדרכת סטודנטים מכל קצווי ישראל והגלויות כדי למזג את האנרגיות של בצלאל עם ההשלכות הקהילתיות של אהליאב.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">האמנות חושפת את היופי השחרור והיצירה</span></div>
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הציונות והאמנות הויזואלית נושקים זה לזה כשהם צצים מתוך ערכי היסוד של היהדות כפי שהם באים לידי ביטוי בעשרת הדברות, המתחילים במילים "אנכי ה' (היה הווה ויהיה) אלוקיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים (המיצרים) מבית עבדים. לא יהיה לך אלוקים אחרים על פני. לא תעשה לך פסל וכל תמונה אשר בשמים ממעל ואשר בארץ מתחת ואשר במים מתחת לארץ (שמות ב' א'-י"ד ושוב בדברים ה': ו'-י"ח)</div>
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המינוח המקראי לשם ה', י' ה' ו' ה' קשור למידת התפארת ולתהליך ההיסטורי של יציאה מעבדות לחירות. י' ה' ו' ה' הוא פועל ולא שם עצם, שילוב של המילים היה הווה ויהיה, תהליך בזמן. י' ה' ו' ה' הוא גם המוציא מהמיצרים ובורא שמים ארץ ומים. השם המקראי למצרים, בפירושו המילולי הוא מיצרים, דבר הבא ללמד אותנו כי תהליך השחרור הוא תהליך של השגת עצמאות מצרות האופקים ויציאה לחירות מתפשטת בארץ ישראל. אכן, כשמשה שלח מרגלים לחקור את ארץ ישראל ממדבר צין לרחוב (מלשון רחב) (במדבר, י"ג, כ"א). ואחריו שלח יהושע מרגלים כעבור 40 שנה, שהגיעו לביתה של רחב (יהושע, א', א') רחב ורחוב, שניהם מייצגים את המרחבים. אחרי שעזבו את העבדות במצרים, בני ישראל פנו אל עבר החופש שבמרחב בארצם שלהם.</div>
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האל הוא אחד, גם המוציא מן המיצר וגם בורא המרחב של השמים הארץ והמים. היה-הווה-יהיה הוא המשחרר מהאומה המצרית הקדומה הסוגדת למוות, ובורא עולם השופע חיוניות וחיים. כאמן ציוני אני נמנע מליצור אומנות המקפיאה את תהליך היצירה המלא חיים ועוצרת את התהליך הדינאמי של השחרור בתוך דמויות קבועות. אני נמנע מלעצור חיים האמורים לזרום בחופשיות או למצק באבן את מה שאמור לזרום בחופשיות. </div>
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יציאת בני ישראל ממצרים – מהמייצרים, מארץ ספרי המתים ומהפירמידות המקובעות, הובילה לתהליך של שחרור במרחבי המדבר, שבהם קיבלו בני ישראל את ספר החיים – תורת חיים, ובנו את המשכן הנייד – העשוי כמו מלבני לגו, המפורק ומורכב מספר פעמים במהלך ארבעים שנות הנדודים. האתגר הציוני, אז ועכשיו, הוא להתיישב בארץ ישראל עם השקפת העולם הנרחבת של תנועה במדבר הפתוח בלי לסגת אל השקפת העולם הצרה הנגררת מהקיבעון. זוהי ארץ אוכלת יושביה, את אותם האנשים היושבים בה ודוממים (במדבר י"ג: ל"ב) ולא את אלה אשר בתנועה (לך לך – בראשית י"ב: א') אותם תושבי הארץ אשר אינם פסיביים, אלא יוצרים באופן פעיל תנועה, גדילה ושינוי, הם אינם בסכנת הכריתות.</div>
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תנועות אמנות ציוניות מקוריות מעודדות אמנים ליצור יצירות אמנות גמישות ויצירות הרפתקניות אשר לא רק חוקרות את הממשקים שבין הציונות והאמנות, אלא גם חושפות את היופי שבתהליך הדינאמי של השחרור והיצירה. הרצל כתב בסגנונו בעל החזון בספרו אלטניולאנד: </div>
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היופי והחכמה לא מתים כתוצאה ממות יוצריהם. בדיוק כמו ששימור האנרגיה הינו עובדה מוגמרת, כך אנו צריכים להתייחס לשימור היופי והחכמה... האם אמרות השפר של אבותינו נעלמו? לא, האש היוקדת שלהם עדיין בוערת באור יקרות, אפילו אם בזמנים שמחים אנחנו לא רואים את זה כל כך כמו בימים אפלים, כמו כל הלהבות. ומה אנחנו צריכים ללמוד מזה? שעלינו לשאוף להגביר את היופי ואת החכמה על פני האדמה, כל עוד אנחנו חיים.18</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">האמנות כמבטאת אהבה לארץ ישראל</span></div>
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הרב קוק מדגיש את הקשר המהותי בין ארץ ישראל והעם היהודי אשר מתרחב לקריאה ליהנות מהיופי של האר </div>
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ארץ ישראל איננה קניין חיצוני לאומה, אמצעי לסיום האחריות הקיבוצית וחיזוק קיום האומה, הפיזי ואף לא הרוחני. ישראל הקשורה בקשר החיים אל העם, מאוחדת במאפיינים פנימיים אל קיומו.19 </div>
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ראו את הזוהר של הארץ הקסומה, הכרמל והשרון, היופי שבשמים השלווים והיפיפיים, ההוד שבאוויר הטהור והנקי השולט במלכות ובתפארת. תיהנו מארץ קסומה זו, ארץ החיים, ארץ שבה האוויר הינו מעיין הרוח. איזה ארץ יפה ומהודרת.20</div>
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חלק מזיכרונותיי הקדומים ביותר הינם מראשית לימודי כאמן ציוני. אני זוכר את עצמי יושב על הדלפק בחנות הספרים היהודיים של סבי ב Coney Island Avenue שבברוקלין בשנות הארבעים, מוקף בתמונות מארץ ישראל הניבטות מבעד ללוחות שנה, גלויות, פוסטרים ותבליטים שונים מבית המלאכה של בצלאל מירושלים אותם מכר סבי ז"ל. לעיתים קרובות התבוננתי בו בשעה שהוא גילף מזוזות מצדפים או מעץ זית שיובא מישראל. סבי, הרב שלמה זלמן כהן עזב את ישיבת טלז בליטא ב1900 כדי להשתתף בקונגרס הציוני הרביעי בלונדון, ומאז לא חזר לשם. הוא התיישב בבוסטון, שם הוא התחתן והוליד את אימי. כאשר נפטר, ארבע שנים לפני התממשות חלומו הציוני ב 1948, סבתי עברה לגור עימנו. כאשר שבתי יום יום מבית הספר, היא נהגה לפרוס את העיתון היידי על שולחן המטבח וכולנו ישבנו יחד וחיפשנו תמונות של ארץ ישראל, אותם היינו נוהגים לגזור ולהדביק במחברת מיוחדת לשם כך. בשבתות נעימות היינו לעיתים קרובות יושבים יחד ויוצאים למסע וירטואלי לארץ ישראל דרך מחברות אלו.</div>
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כאשר הגעתי לראשונה לארץ ישראל ב1969, חשתי כמי שכבר ביקר במקום הרבה פעמים בעבר. התאהבתי בנוף המגוון של הארץ שנים רבות קודם לכן, עוד ביושבי בניו יורק, החל מהגבעות הירוקות של הגליל ועד למדבר הנגב, שבו התגוררה משפחתו של בני, מפתח תקוה, בה אני מתגורר ועד ירושלים, בה אני עובד, מים המוות ועד לשונית האלמוגים של אילת, מהגלים של חוף תל אביב ועד לכותל הדמעות, מצפת ההררית ועד למכתש רמון. אהבה זו היא הדוחפת את האמן הציוני לחקור, לבטא, להביע ולתעד את הנוף, החל מהיופי העדין ועד לרוממות המהממת, וליצור אמנות אדמה ויצירות אקולוגיות המכבדות את הארץ.</div>
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בפורים תשנ"ד 1984 יזם עזרא אוריון אירוע של אמנות סביבתית שבה עשרה אמנים ישראלים הוזמנו ליצור יצירות של עבודות אדמה באזור סדום, בקצהו הדרומי של ים המלח. אני בחרתי בגבעה החוסמת את העמק שבין רכס הרי אדום והרי מואב כדי ליצור יצירת אמנות המקשרת את סדום לפורים: http://www.melalexenberg.com/artworks/Sodom.doc</div>
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אנשי סדום שלא קיבלו את הפרט החריג (מיטת סדום )הזכירה לי את יחסו של המן לעם היהודי השונה מכל העמים, חוסר הרצון לקבל את השונה , חז"ל מלמדים אותנו ששלמה תיקן להם לישראל את מצוות הערוב ונטילת ידיים .</div>
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שתי מצוות המשמחות את ה', עירוב מסמל קהילה, רשות הרבים ההופכת לרשות הקהילתית מול נטילת ידיים </div>
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כאשר היד היא הבטוי האישי ביותר (טביעת אצבעות המאפיינת כל כל יחד ויחיד. קהילה הבנויה מכבוד לפרט, היא השילוב הנכון. על ההר הצופה לעבר עמון ומואב ( בני לוט ילידות סדום ) הונחו כדי מים שהוכנו ע"י תלמידות. כל כלי היה בטוי הרצון לעודד את הדיאלוג היצירתי בין יהודים בישראל ובארצות הברית.</div>
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לאישיות של כל סטודנטית . בסך הכל היו עשרה עמודים שעליהם הונחו הנטלות .המספר עשר מבטא מנין. </div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">אומנות היוצרת דו שיח בין ישראל והתפוצות</span></div>
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למרות שהחיים בישראל מתנהלים על פי הלוח העברי, השפה העברית כשפה יום יומית, ההתהלכות על האדמה שעליה הלכו אבותינו, כל אלו הם האידיאל הציוני. הרשת העולמית מספקת הזדמנויות חסרות תקדים לאומנים היהודיים בארץ מולדתם ואלו שבתפוצות לשתף פעולה יצירתית אלו עם אלו.רשת האינטרנט 2.0 יוצרת מסגרת פעילות אלטרנטיבית לקהילות גלובליות ליצור ולשגשג. אומנים ציוניים יוצרים קהילות וירטואליות ומפיצים את שורשיהם המדומים בכל רחבי העולם. העובדה שישראל הופכת לנקודת מרכז חשובה לקהילות עולמיות אלו הינה התממשות החזון של הציונות התרבותית של אחד העם בקונגרס הציוני הראשון ב 1897. בנוסף לכך, אומנים מפיצים את יצירותיהם דרך אתרי הרשת, הבלוגים, אתר YouTube, רשתות חברתיות וכדו'. חיוני במיוחד לעתיד הציונות הוא שיתוף הפעולה בין שתי הקהילות הגדולות היהודיות. דרך שותפות מלאת השראה בין אמנים בישראל המהווה את המרכז העולמי לתרבות יהודית, ואמנים בארה"ב, המרכז העולמי לחדשנות אומנותית, אנרגיות ציוניות חדשות יעלו ויפרחו.</div>
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בנוסף לרצון לעודד את הדיאלוג היצירתי בין יהודים בישראל ובארצות הברית , אני רואה חשיבות מרובה לעולם הציוני החי בעידן העולם הדיגיטלי המרושת ליצור דיאלוג בן ישראלים ואמריקאים שאינם בהכרח יהודים, מתוך רצון להגשים חזון זה יצרתי בלוג אומנותי הנקרא "JerUSAlem-USA" המקשר בין עשרים מקומות בארצות הברית הנקראים ירושלים עם העיר ירושלים בירת ישראל :<br />
<a href="http://jerusalem-usa.blogspot.com/">http://jerusalem-usa.blogspot.com/</a></div>
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במיזם אמנותי זה , אמריקאים שולחים תמונות של ירושלים וישראלים מגיבים בצילומי ירושלים מקבילים ומתאימים בישראל. דו שיח דיגיטלי זה, יוצר רשת אינטראקיטיבית של אנשים בעלי ערכים משותפים, דבר המעמיק את החברות שביניהם. עיגון למיזם זה מצאתי בדבריו של הרבי מלובביץ :</div>
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"תפקידה השמימי של מהפיכת המידע הנוכחית , הנותנת לכל אחד כוח והזדמנויות חסרות תקדים </div>
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הוא לאפשר לנו לשתףמידע – מידע רוחני- האחד עם השני, וכך לחזק ולאחד את היחידים בכל מקום.</div>
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אנו צריכים להשתמש בטכנולוגיה האינראקטיבית של היום לא רק לשם עסקים או בילוי, אלא כדי לקשר ביננו- האנשים כדי ליצור סביב מזמינה לשילובים של נשמותינו, לבבינו וחזונינו.21</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">אומנות המתעמתת עם השנאה, הקנאות, הגזענות, הטרוריזם והסגידה למוות על ידי זעזוע מצפוני</span></div>
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על פי המסורת של גרניקה של פיקאסו, יצרתי יצירת אומנות אינטרנטית, <a href="http://www.futureholocaustmemorials.org/">http://www.futureholocaustmemorials.org/</a> כדי להזהיר את העולם מהניסיון של איראן להשיג נשק גרעיני כדי "למחוק את ישראל מעל המפה". בדיוק כמו שהעולם קיבל את ההפצצות החוזרות של היטלר על העיר הבסקית גורניקה, ובעצם היטלר ראה בכך אישור להמשיך ולהתכונן למלחמת העולם השניה ולהשמיד את יהדות אירופה בדרכו לכיבוש העולם, התעלמות העולם מאלפי רקטות המופנות אל עבר ישראל על ידי הצבאות עושי דברי איראן, החמאס והחיזבאלה, נותנים לאחדיניג'אד ייפוי כוח לשחוק את היהודים בישראל כשלב פתיחה של הג'יהאד העולמי. </div>
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יצירותיי האינטרנטיות קוראות לאנושות "לעולם לא עוד!" היחס האפאטי של האומות שלא נקפו אצבע כדי למנוע את רציחתם של ששת מליוני יהודי אירופה, או שאף שיתפו פעולה עם הנאצים בהוצאת זממם אל הפועל. היצירות מנפיקות אזהרות חמורות לאותן האומות שעכשיו מנסות לשכנע את תושבי ארץ ישראל לוותר על מולדתם ההיסטורית כדי להקים ארץ מקלט לטרוריסטים, בפלסטין. היצירות חושפות את העובדה שרוב הערבים המתגוררים ביהודה שומרון ועזה בחרו באופן חופשי בחמאס, אשר באמנתם כתוב: "ישראל, כארץ יהודית אשר אזרחיה יהודים, מזלזלת באיסלאם... המוסלמים ילחמו ביהודים עד שהיהודים יתחבאו מאחורי סלעים ועצים, אשר בתורם יצעקו: מוסלמים: הנה היהודי מסתתר מאחורי, בואו והרגו אותו... אני משתוקק לצאת למלחמה בשמו של אללה! אתקוף ואהרוג, אתקוף ואהרוג, אתקוף ואהרוג!!!." </div>
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לציבור זה מבקשים מדינות אירופה שנפתח בדיאלו </div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">האמנות מקדמת שלום אסטטי בין המדינה היהודית ושכנותיה</span></div>
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המרדף אחרי השלום הינו ערך מרכזי ביהדות. המילה שלום מוזכרת בתנ"ך 237 פעמים והיא צצה עשרות פעמים בתפילה היהודית. השלום אף מופיע במגילת העצמאות: "אנו מושיטים יד לשלום ושכנות טובה לכל המדינות השכנות ועמיהן, וקוראים להם לשיתוף פעולה ועזרה הדדית עם העם העברי העצמאי בארצו".</div>
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למרות האנטישמיות המוסלמית הארסית והשאיפות להשמדת ישראל, ישראל ממשיכה לשאוף לשלום. אולם, כל התהליכים הפוליטיים והניסיונות השונים, החל באוסלו וכלה באובמה, כולם נידונו לכישלון מאחר והקונפליקט עם הערבים איננו פוליטי אלא בעיה אסטטית הדורשת פתרון אמנותי. ביצירתי תוכנית השלום האסטטי למזרח התיכון המוצגת במוזיאון היהודי בפראג22 וברשת ב http://aestheticpeace.blogspot.com שם אני מציע פתרון אסטטי היוצר מטאפורה חדשה לשלום המגיע מתוך האומנות וצורת החשיבה האסלאמית.</div>
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אומנות אסלאמית מלמדת את הערבים לראות את העולם כתבנית גיאומטרית המתמשכת מצפון אפריקה ועד למזרח התיכון. הם רואים בישראל ככתם שפוגע בתבנית הזו. הם מתייחסים אל כתם זה כאל נוכחות גוף זר שהם מנסים באופן עקבי למחוק דרך מלחמות, טרור ופעילויות פוליטיות. שינוי תפיסתי שיכול להוביל לשלום אמיתי יכול להגיע מאומנות וחשיבה אסלאמיים. באומנות אסלאמית, תבנית גיאומטרית מושלמת נפגמת בכוונה על ידי תבנית הופכית, המייצגת את העובדה שיצירת האדם איננה מושלמת. מאחר והאסלאם מאמין שרק אללה יכול ליצור שלמות, אורגי שטיחים מארצות אסלאמיות בכוונה משלבים קטע נגדי למארג כדי לשבור את הסימטריות של השטיחים שלהם.</div>
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השלום יגיע כאשר מטאפורה חדשה ורעננה, שבה העולם האסלאמי יראה את הימצאותה של ישראל כרצון האל. תפנית בנקודת המבט שבה ישראל נתפסת כתבנית נגדית נצרכת במארג הכללי של העולם האסלאמי תעורר עידן חדש של שלום. הקוראן (סורה 17: 104) מלמד אותנו שקיבוץ גלויות ישראל אל ארץ מולדתם ההיסטורית בתוך העולם האסלאמי היא התממשות נבואתו של מוחאמד: " ונאמר לבני ישראל 'התפזרו לכם לכל עבר העולם... וכאשר סוף העולם יתקרב נקבץ אתכם שוב אל הארץ המובטחת."</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">אמנות משלבת גאווה בשורשים עם סקירה כללית של העולם כפי שהוא נצפה על </span><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">ידי האחר</span></div>
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האינטגראציה של היהודים עם מולדתם ההיסטורית בזמן שבו אומות נעלמות בתוך ארצות אחרות מצטיירת כמגמה הפוכה לכוחות החזקים של הגלובליזציה. אולם, הלידה מחדש של המדינה היהודית וקיבוץ הגלויות נוטעים זרעים לספק את הבסיס האיתן הנחוץ בכדי ליטול חלק במשחק המהיר של הגלובליזציה. שישים שנה לאחר לידתה, ישראל מופיעה כשחקנית ראשית במשחק הגלובלי של היי-טק.</div>
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אמנות ציונית מלאת חיים חוקרת את המתח היצירתי והמשחק ההדדי האנרגטי שבין הכיבוש לבין החופש, בין המיצרים, המחשבה המצומצמת ובין החשיבה הרחבה, בין הרוחניות לגשמיות, בין ערכי המסורת לבין המדע וההתקדמות הטכנולוגית, בין מלחמה לשלום, בין שנאה לאחווה, בין פעילות מקומית למשהו גלובלי, ובין השתרשות בתרבות האישית לבין חקירת תרבויות שונות. המתח הזה והמשחק ההדדי הם הכוח הממריץ וחומרי הגלם של יצירת אמנות המחייה את התרבות היהודית, בעודה מציעה כיוון מרענן לצמיחתה של האמנות הגלובלית.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">על הכותב</span><br />
מנחם (מל) אלקסנברג הוא ראש בית הספר לאמנות במכללת אמונה בירושלים ופרופסור בדימוס במרכז האוניברסיטאי יהודה ושומרון באריאל שם הוא הרצה את הקורסים "אומנות בחשיבה היהודית" ו"יהדות וציונות: ערכים ושורשים." אלכסנברג, פרופסור לאומנות וחינוך לשעבר באונ' קולומביה ובר אילן, ראש המחלקה לאומנות במכון פראט, דיקן בית הספר לאומנות ניו וורלד במיאמי, ועמית חוקר במרכז ללימודים ויזואליים מתקדמים ב MIT. יצירותיו מוצגות באוספים ביותר מארבעים מוזיאונים מסביב לעולם. הוא הסופר של עתיד האומנות בעידן פוסט דיגיטאלי: מתודעה הלניסטית לתודעה עברי (Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press)- עתיד האומנות בעידן הדיגיטלי- חוויה אסטטית בתהליך יצירתי (אוני' בר אילן) ובעברית: אומנות דיאלוגית בעולם דיגיטאלי: ארבע מסות על יהדות ואומנות בת זמננו הוצאת ראובן מס ומכללת אמונה בירושלים. אלכסנברג הוא עורך הספר אומני העתיד: לימוד בצומת האומנות, המדע הטכנולוגיה והתרבות .(Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press) את הבלוגים של אלקסנברג ניתן למצוא בhttp://www.artiststory.com, http://www.future-of-art.com , and http://zionistartists.blogspot.com <br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">הערות</span></div>
1 Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. (New York: Riverhead Books, 2006). <br />
2 Ori Z. Soltes, Fixing the World: Jewish American Painters in the Twentieth Century (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England and Brandeis University Press, 2003), p. 131<br />
3 Winston Churchill, History of the Second World War, Vol. V (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951), p. 532.<br />
4 Thorleif Boman, Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek (New York: Norton, 1960), p. 27.<br />
5 Mel Alexenberg, The Future of Art in a Digital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness (Bristol and Chicago: Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press, 2006).<br />
6מנחם אלכסנברג, אמנות דיאלוגית בעולם דיגיטלי: ארבע מסות על יהדות ואמנות בת זמננו, ירושלים: בית רובען מס ומכללת אמונה, 2008<br />
7 Haim Finkelstein. "Lilien and Zionism," Assaph: Studies in Art History, Section B, No.3 (1998) pp. 195-216, accessed 25 January 2009: <a href="http://www.tau.ac.il/arts/projects/PUB/assaph-art/assaph3/articles_assaph3/11finkelstein.pdf">http://www.tau.ac.il/arts/projects/PUB/assaph-art/assaph3/articles_assaph3/11finkelstein.pdf</a> and Gilya Gerda Schmidt, The Art and Artists of the Fifth Zionist Congress 1901: Heralds of a New Age (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003). <br />
8 Mel Alexenberg and Otto Piene, introduction by Rudolf Arnheim, LightsOROT (Cambridge, MA: MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies and New York: Yeshiva University Museum, 1988).<br />
9 Mel Alexenberg, Aesthetic Experience in Creative Process (Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar Ilan University Press, 1981).<br />
קוק , אברהם יצחק הכהן , אורות הקודש (עורך: דוד הכהן כרך א' עמ' קעז"- קע"ח 10<br />
11 .סולוביצי'ק יוסף דב הלוי,איש ההלכה גלוי ונסתר . ירושלים , תשמ"ט עמ' 91<br />
קוק , אברהם יצחק הכהן, אגרות הראי"ה כרך א' עמ' כ"ד 12 <br />
13.שם עמ'<br />
14 Arthur Green, Seek My Face, Speak My Name (Northvale, NJ and London: Jason Aronson, 1992), p. 138.<br />
15 Arthur C. Danto, Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-historical Perspective (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1992). <br />
16 Mel Alexenberg (editor), Educating Artists for the Future: Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology, and Culture (Bristol and Chicago: Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press, 2008).<br />
17 Mel Alexenberg and Miriam Benjamin, “Legacy Thrones: Intergenerational Collaboration in Creating Public Art” in Angela M. La Porte (editor), Community Connections: Intergenerational Links in Art Education (Reston, VA: National Art Education Association, 2004), pp. 115-128.<br />
18 Theodore Herzl, Old New Land, translated by Lotta Levensohn (Princeton: M. Wiener, 1997), p. 262. Original German edition published as Altneuland in 1902.<br />
19 .קוק הרב אברהם יצחק הכהן,אורות עמ' ט'<br />
20 .קוק אברהם יצחק הכהן,אגרות הראי"ה פרק א'<br />
21 Michaela Hajkova, Mel Alexenberg: Cyberangels – Aesthetic Peace Plan for the Middle East (Prague: Robert Guttmann Gallery, Jewish Museum of Prague, 2004) [exhibition catalog]Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-28065197687992733042009-11-03T00:25:00.000-08:002015-12-27T10:02:22.075-08:00JerUSAlem-USA<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaa8oS9HshOZiQa5J4Yx5SIx2w-bw55VZ_T24PbDhUS2RHjOoLFGCC_Z_KJOFkcKdDYNJnu1Gqn4f9dStI3ZVeyOwRzGVfmu4Y13cQ7yss-nAOJjjLqSDLk4-dhPLuxix_Dmsf-cu1974/s1600-h/MI_jerusalem_rd_sign.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399792613076684930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaa8oS9HshOZiQa5J4Yx5SIx2w-bw55VZ_T24PbDhUS2RHjOoLFGCC_Z_KJOFkcKdDYNJnu1Gqn4f9dStI3ZVeyOwRzGVfmu4Y13cQ7yss-nAOJjjLqSDLk4-dhPLuxix_Dmsf-cu1974/s400/MI_jerusalem_rd_sign.JPG" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 267px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-size: 85%;">The photograph above was taken in Jerusalem, Michigan. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;">The text below was added to 'On Being a Zionist Artists in a Networked World'<br /><b><b></b></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #3366ff;"><b><b>Art creating dialog between Israel and the Diaspora</b></b></span>Although living in Israel by a Jewish calendar, speaking Hebrew, walking on the soil of our ancestors is the Zionist ideal, the networked world provides unprecedented opportunities for Jewish artists in the homeland and those in the Diaspora to creatively interact with each other. Internet 2.0 generates alternative frameworks for global communities to form and flourish. Zionist artists can form virtual communities spreading rhizome-like across the surface of the globe. Israel becoming the central node in these worldwide communities is the realization of the dream of the cultural Zionists led by Ahad Ha’am at the First Zionist Congress in 1897. In addition, artists share their creative works through their websites, blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Rhizome, Second Life, etc. Particularly vital to the Zionist future is creative dialog and collaboration between the two largest Jewish communities. Through inspired partnerships between artists in Israel, the world center of Jewish culture, and artists in the USA, the world center of artistic innovation, a new Zionist energy will emerge and flourish.<br />
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In addition to energizing the creative dialog between Jews in Israel and United States, it is important to the Zionist enterprise in a networked world to establish a creative dialog between Israelis and Americans of diverse backgrounds. To realize this extended dialog, I created a work of participatory blogart ‘JerUSAlem-USA’ linking the twenty places in the United States called ‘Jerusalem’ with the original in Israel: http://jerusalem-usa.blogspot.com. In this collaborative artwork, Americans send photographs of Jerusalems in USA to which Israelis respond with matched images of Jerusalem in Israel. This digital dialog creates an interactive network of people with shared values that deepens friendships between them.<br />
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The Lubavicher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, teaches:<br />
“The divine purpose of the present information revolution, which gives an individual unprecedented power and opportunity, is to allow us to share knowledge – spiritual knowledge – with each other, empowering and unifying individuals everywhere. We need to use today’s interactive technology not just for business or leisure but to interlink as people – to create a welcome environment for the interaction of our souls, our hearts, our visions.”Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-69306709176903491552008-08-25T09:59:00.000-07:002015-06-22T00:21:06.316-07:00Art as a Sign of Awakening from a 2000-year Coma<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWtmQXQ70IGaoHzdBbuA9kX4jhJXcqXUI0tDfdQ2I9VLgBjK6NDLcgLHsBi2Zp3y1anvYKkB-SvekFONqTWyFhd2wppbvLeddHZa9NZB9MLy_1_hQdWNTnVuSN7gQaVcWTYPMg6S8hKt8/s1600-h/bezalel_photo.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="257" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5255430997001312930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWtmQXQ70IGaoHzdBbuA9kX4jhJXcqXUI0tDfdQ2I9VLgBjK6NDLcgLHsBi2Zp3y1anvYKkB-SvekFONqTWyFhd2wppbvLeddHZa9NZB9MLy_1_hQdWNTnVuSN7gQaVcWTYPMg6S8hKt8/s400/bezalel_photo.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, a down-to-earth mystic who served as Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, wrote a letter of congratulations on the founding of the Betzalel Art School in Jerusalem in 1906. By way of allegory, he refers to the revival of Jewish art and aesthetics after two thousand years of exile as a child in a coma who awakes calling for her doll.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"The pleasant and beloved child, the delightful daughter, after a long and forlorn illness, with a face as pallid as plaster, bluish lips, fever burning like a fiery furnace, and convulsive shaking and trembling, behold! She has opened her eyes and her tightly sealed lips, her little hands move with renewed life, her thin pure fingers wander hither and thither, seeking their purpose; her lips move and almost revert to their normal color, and as if through a medium a voice is heard: “Mother, Mother, the doll, give me the doll, the dear doll, which I have not seen for so long.” A voice of mirth and a voice of gladness, all are joyous, the father, the mother, the brothers and sisters, even the elderly man and woman who, because of their many years, have forgotten their children’s games."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Rabbi Kook saw artists at work as a clear sign of the rebirth of the Jewish people in its homeland. Their playful spirit nurturing sensitivity for beauty “will uplift depressed souls, giving them a clear and illuminating view of the beauty of life, nature, and work.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Excerpt from the book by Mel Alexenberg,<i> The Future of Art in a Postdigital Age: From Hellenistic to Hebraic Consciousness </i>(Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press).</span></span>Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2147710421108268029.post-71447580329745778552008-08-02T13:45:00.000-07:002015-06-22T00:22:46.174-07:00Zionist Thoughts on the Arts, Creativity, and Cultural Renewal<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Israel Baseball League game </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #3366ff;">Creating Works of Imagination in the Land of Israel</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The Land of Israel is not something external, not an external national asset, a means to the end of collective solidarity and the strengthening of the nation’s existence, physical or even spiritual. The Land of Israel is an essential unit bound by the bond-of-life to the People, united by inner characteristics to its existence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Whoever is endowed with the soul of a creator must create works of imagination and thought, for the flame of the soul rises by itself and one cannot impede it on its course…. The creative individual brings vital, new light from the higher source where originality emanates to the place where its has not previously been manifest, from the place that “no bird of prey knows, nor has the falcon’s eye seen.” (<i>Job</i> 28:7), “that no man has passed, nor has any person dwelt” (<i>Jeremiah</i> 2:6).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-size: 78%;">Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), First Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, Founder of Yeshivat Mercaz Ha’Rav in Jerusalem. Quotations from: <i>Orot </i>(<i>Lights</i>) and <i>Orot Hakodesh</i> (<i>Lights of Holiness</i>)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #3366ff;">Longing to Create is Embodied in all of Judaism's Goals</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Halakhic man is a man who longs to create, to bring into being something new, something original. The dream of creation is the central idea in halakhic consciousness – the idea of the importance of man as a partner of the Almighty in the act of creation, man as creator of worlds. This longing for creation and the renewal of the cosmos is embodied in all of Judaism’s goals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If a man wishes to attain the rank of holiness, he must become a creator of worlds. If a man never creates, never brings into being anything new, anything original, then he cannot be holy unto his God. That passive type who is derelict in fulfilling his task of creation cannot become holy. Creation is the lowering of transcendence into the midst of our turbid, coarse, material world…. “For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp” (<i>Deuteronomy </i>23:15).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 78%;">Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993), Head of the Rabbinical Seminary of Yeshiva University, President of Mizrachi Zionists of America. Quotations from: <i>Ish Ha’halakhah</i> (<i>Halakhic Man</i>)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #3366ff;">A National Culture of its Own</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">A complete national life involves two things: first, full play for the creative faculties of the nation in a specific national culture of its own, and, second, a system of education whereby the individual members of the nation will be thoroughly imbued with that culture, and so molded by it that its imprint will be recognizable in all their way of life and thought, individual and social.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Ahad Ha’Am (Asher Zvi Ginsberg) (1856-1927), Hebrew essayist and father of ‘Cultural Zionism.’</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: #3366ff;"><b>Revolution and Tradition</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">A renewing and creative regeneration <i>does not</i> throw the cultural heritage of ages in the dustbin. It examines and scrutinizes, accepts and rejects. At times it may keep and add to an accepted tradition. At times it descends into ruined grottoes to excavate and remove the dust from that which had lain in forgetfulness, in order to resuscitate old traditions which have the power to stimulate the spirit of the generation of renewal.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: 78%;">Berl Katzenelson (1887-1944), Leader of ‘Socialist Zionism,’ Founder the Labor Zionist newspaper <i>Davar</i>, and editor of Am Oved, publishing house of the Histadrut. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #3366ff;">Increasing Beauty and Wisdom in Tel Aviv</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Even my dreams are eternal, for others will dream them when I am no more. Beauty and wisdom do not die because their creators die. Just as the conservation of energy is self-evident, so must we infer that there is conservation of beauty and wisdom…. Have the sayings of our ancient sages perished? No, their flame burns brightly, even if in happy times it is less clearly visible than in dark days, like all flames. And what should we learn from this? That we should strive to increase beauty and wisdom on this earth as long as we live.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 78%;">Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), Founder of the World Zionist Organization and its first president. Quotation from: <i>Altneuland</i> (<i>Old-New Land</i>). The Hebrew translation of Herzl's visionary novel by Nachum Sokolov was titled <i>Tel Aviv </i>(the ancient tel and the renewal of spring). When the first Hebrew city was founded, it took its name from the title of Herzl's book. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc33cc; font-size: 85%;"><b>Artists worldwide are invited to contribute additional quotations of Zionist thinkers on the arts, creativity, and cultural renewal.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">Send your contributions to: <a href="mailto:melalexenberg@yahoo.com">melalexenberg@yahoo.com</a></span></span>Mel Alexenberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07182769814712212162noreply@blogger.com0