ايليس بيرنهاردت

It is clear that the Fellows have acquired a deep sense of the City. Here’s a bit about their feelings:

Anna: “I was surprised to see how un-unified is this place, in a good way…There was space for me to be a diasporic Jew.”

Sofia: “We learned that one of the meanings of Jerusalem is Peace. There’s no better place to be called peace than the one that promotes conflict.”

Claudia: “Jerusalem is a creature. Like a small version of the shifting of tectonic plates…”

Vibha: ” I was concerned when I got here  – where is my studio, where will I work? 

I discovered that the city was my studio…”

Elise Bernhardt is on a mission: for visiting artists to fall in love with Jerusalem they way she did – warts and all
Judy Maltz | May 19, 2022 | 4:49 PM

The visiting artists were wondering where their studios in Jerusalem would be located. Elise Bernhardt, the founder and director of their program, had some surprising news. “There are no studios,” she told them. “The city will be your studio.”

Ten weeks later, the participants in this first-of-its-kind cultural program – four women who hail from different countries – unanimously agree: It was a brilliant idea.

“This is not about sitting in a studio,” says Bernhardt, the initiator of the Jerusalem International Fellows program. “This is about getting out there, creating networks and engaging with locals.”

Their studio – that is, Jerusalem – was unable to provide these women with the peace and quiet artists so often seek. Quite the opposite, in fact. During their stay, tensions reached a boiling point, threatening to erupt into an all- out war. Clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians spread from the Temple Mount to Damascus Gate, and from there to other parts of the city. Tensions escalated yet again over the weekend, during the funeral of prominent Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, from which scenes of police beating mourners were broadcast throughout the world.

This, then, was the background noise these women heard over the past two- and-a-half months as they went about their creative endeavors.

Sophia Borges, a visual artist from Brazil, is being hosted by the Idbaa School of the Arts in Sheikh Jarrah, an East Jerusalem neighborhood that has been a major focus of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Vibha Galhotra, a conceptual artist from India, is being hosted by Muslala, a nonprofit artistic organization whose founders came from the neighborhood of Musrara, situated on the border of the eastern and western parts of the city; Claudia Lavista, a choreographer and dancer from Mexico, is being hosted by the c.a.t.a.m.o.n. dance group in West Jerusalem; and Anna Lublina, an interdisciplinary

www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-this-woman-is-turning-jerusalem-into-an-open-air-art-studio-1.10809633 1/2

5/20/22, 9:50 AM Haaretz.Com

performer from the United States, is being hosted by the Bloomfield Science Museum, also in the western part of the city. For all four women selected for this pilot program, this has been a first trip to Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem International Fellows program is the brainchild of Bernhardt, the former director of the New York-based Foundation for Jewish Culture. It started out several years ago as the American Academy in Jerusalem, a program that brought American artists and performers to the Israeli capital, where they were hosted by Jewish organizations based in the western part of the city.

Bernhardt decided to switch it up a bit this year. Instead of focusing exclusively on Americans, this year’s cohort includes representatives from other countries as well. But perhaps the most significant change is that this year the hosting organizations are on both the western, largely Jewish and eastern, largely Arab sides of the city.

In the 1980s, Bernhardt founded Dancing in the Streets, an organization that produced free public dance performances. Her experiences there, she says, inspired the concept behind the latest iteration of the Jerusalem fellows program.

“We worked in places where there was a lot of conflict, mainly racial conflict, and one of our goals was to get people to cross borders,” she says. “It was based on the same that artists performers need to be out there, rather than confined in studios.”

And why Jerusalem? “I am madly in love with this city,” she says. “My objective is for these artists to fall in love with it as well – warts and all.”

Dear Elise.

I’m finally at the aeroport heading home…

Mixed feelings. But mostly, I feel deeply grateful with you, with this program and with this amazing experience…
🌊
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
🙏
For your belief in the artist and what art can do.
I’m going back home full of new visions and ideas, and a better understanding of the Israel/Palestine’s culture!

But mainly I’m leaving with new friends, with a new community of wonderful people that I can call now colleagues.

So, this is now a place for me to come back and have joy… that’s priceless!!!

Mucho amor

Claudia

Reflections

“It was a real pleasure getting to know the Jerusalem International Fellows. I must tell you that even though I have joined c.a.t.a.m.o.n and Elad only recently, the residency program has left a great impression on me. The selection of such talented individuals together with the selection of cultural/social/educational Jerusalem institutions was so accurate. The connections created as part of the project, both artistic and human, were exceptional. I can honestly say that such projects fill me with hope and optimism.”

Dr. Ido Lahav Noy, CEO /// c.a.t.a.m.o.n

Intense is the only word that (almost) adequately covers the weeks since I last posted.  Between the Fellows finalizing plans for their projects, bringing their teams together and jumping into the complex works they are each creating and the tensions going on with the collision of Ramadan, Passover and Easter, especially in the Old City it has been INTENSE.

I will share a bit about what each Fellow is working on below.  In terms of the current situation, I will say that thank god that everyone is safe.  There have been some scary moments. Two of our fellows were in Tel Aviv the day of the shooting.  They were close to where it took place, thankfully not at the time it did.  But we in Jerusalem were extremely frightened til we knew they were safe.

Last week, two of our fellows had received passes to Holy Fire from Vibha’s new Armenian friend (the one who introduced her to woodworkers in Bethelehem and the Armenian Father at the Church of the Nativity…)  Their friend could not get to the Old City because traffic was blocked but they contacted friends who were already there to welcome Vibha and Anna, who were SO excited to be able to experience this incredible event.  However, when they arrived at the entrance their passes were torn up by police who were extremely hostile to them and who ignored the pleadings of the Armenians who told the police that the women were their guests. (Read more about Holy Fire and these “security” occurrences, which happened to many others, هنا.)

Nonetheless, the work continues.

Anna’s salon engaged the public in her work on Synchronicity through weaving.  She and partner Gre created a complicated “machine” that takes the touch or the shuttle on the threads to make sounds created by a singer. Several weavers are connected, each with their own rhythm.  If it sounds hard to describe and difficult to understand, it is even harder to do!  We wil post videos soon – which will make it all clearer.  I can say that it is exceptionally beautiful and that Anna’s work with Neuroscientists as well as the Bloomfield Science Museum staff makes it a true weaving of science and art.

Claudia is working on two dance projects – one with Catamon Dance Group directly – a performance at the Brown Hotel which will take place on May 12.  Claudia has created a duet for two dancers on the bar.  It will be filmed so we who can’t attend will be able to see it.  Her other project is a dance video she is creating in collaboration with her partner Alex.  She has chosen two sites – the one outdoors was going to be at the beautiful nature preserve Ein Prat, but when permission was denied she found another site – and made friends with 2 Bedouins who now want to be part of her production team. The other location is a tiny room inside the Tower of David.  We will get to see some of the unedited videos at her final presentation. The finished video will be projected as part of Catamon’s festival this fall.

Claudia, who is a master collaborator, is structuring her upcoming salon all about collaboration in the dance world. 

Vibha’s project has gone through multiple iterations as she has figured out a way to represent her experience of Jerusalem in the context of Muslala’s upcoming rooftop festival.  And the limitations of time and budget.  She has created an extraordinary grid of the branches of the 3 Abrahamic religions in order to identify expert scholars and musicians (including the amazing Victoria Hannah)  from these different groups to talk about the relationship between humans and nature from the perspective of their texts.  With the help of local filmmaker Aaron Paz, she is documenting each of these experts and the final result – audio and video, will be viewed/heard as part of an installation made of stone that will be on Muslala’s rooftop.   And possibly in a larger scale version at the Tower of David.

Sofia created an extraordinary structure for her students at Ibdaa School of the Arts, using the creative devices she employs herself to help them develop their own work.  She was working 3 days a week (even during Ramadan!,) taking them to different museums and helping them develop ways of re-interpreting and layering images they have photographed on their cellphones.  She has also introduced them to a number of other local artists including Alon Kedem, laying the groundwork for other artists in Jerusalem to continue the work she is doing with them, to help them understand that making art is about self-expression and giving them tools to achieve that. I am looking forward to seeing the works in progress they share at their final presentation on May 6.

In addition to all this, here the Fellows are connecting with Jerusalemites in many other ways.  Vibha and Sofia will be presenting at the class of Sarah Benninga at Bezalel.  Vibha also presented one of her films and talked to students at Ibdaa followed by an Iftar meal organized by Ibdaa’s amazing Principal, Melhem Bader.  Claudia just taught a fantastic Master class at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.  And lots more connections continue to be made and expanded on.

It is strange how quickly the time has passed.  And yet it seems the Fellows have been here a very long time.  I am already missing them.