Under The Mountain: New Public Art School
11–15 July 2013
Jerusalem
www.jerusalemseason.com
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Participants: Dani Karavan, Chto Delat?, Public Movement, Tino Sehgal Tribute, Situationist International, Sadie Plant, Tea Tupajić / Frakcija magazine, Yonatan Levy, Saar Székely, Tights: Dance-Thought Alliance, Jonathan Gold and Hila Klein, Daniel Yahel and the National Children Ensemble
Curator: Omer Krieger
Under the Mountain: New Public Art School is what happens when public experience and political life are the medium and the material of the artwork.
New Public Art is performative. It activates and questions public space and behavior, practices and reinvents forms of assembly, and plays with institutions, cities, states. New Public Art School takes place in the fully charged, modern-day Jerusalem, examining the relationship between the artistic and the political. Under the Mountain 2013 invites people to engage as both citizens and artists, organically and critically, in the activity of state institutions.
Under the Mountain 2013 is comprised of two parts: a two-day-long School for New Public Art, and a series of projects and actions in some of Jerusalem’s most iconic sites—the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament), the American Colony Hotel (in East Jerusalem), Zion Square (one of the city’s most central gathering places), and the Western Wall.
Knesset Wall
Under the Mountain 2013 opens with a talk with Dani Karavan, one of Israel’s best known and highly regarded artists, at the assembly hall of Israel’s parliament building.
In front of his most famous public artwork, Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem (1966), we will launch a new art guide that revisits that artwork, written by the art historian Adi Englman and published by New Public Art School and Picnic magazine. A tour of the Knesset’s artworks will follow.
Debriefing Session
In the lobby of the American Colony hotel in East Jerusalem, site of informal meetings for politicians and diplomats from all over the world, artist group Public Movement will debrief individual participants in 20-minute sessions, drawing the participant into the messy worlds of power structures, institutional alliances and back-room politics. The meeting will expose the transitional moment between research and action by turning members of the public into emissaries of this information. The first Debriefing Session was held in the New Museum in New York in 2011, and the Jerusalem session is based on new research in Israel and in the hosting institution.
New Public Art School
The New Public Art School is a two-day-long event that will host lessons, conversations, actions, workshops, situations and a party, proposing key concepts, study cases and advanced practices in new public art. On the first day, artists, researchers, and students will lead a curriculum starting from the afternoon and continuing deep into the night. The second day will focus on research and action workshops in the school campus and around town.
State
Ninth of Av at the Western Wall
The closing event of the New Public Art School will take place on the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av, when millions of people throughout the world mourn the destruction of the Temple. Come and visit the holiest site in Judaism during a mass performance of ritual. Come and follow the texts and the customs rehearsed for thousands of years. Come to listen and be present in one of the greatest performances taking place in Jerusalem’s public space.
Curators: Hagar Ophir and Omer Krieger
For more info: Under the Mountain: New Public Art School
