A YOUNG ART PROJECT TAKING PLACE IN BERLIN & JERUSALEM

(personal remarks by Cheb Kammerer)

 

“Last week I took part in a very special program, with the aim to practice art- Israelis, Palestinians and Germans together. The amount of creativity and openness was one that I rarely experience, I might even dare say it was the first time.”

(Mayan, participant in Diversity)

Since many years the Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem has engaged in international exchanges with young artists, writers and musicians. This projects take place as cooperation with other cultural associations and/or art schools in Jerusalem and abroad.
This summer, the Willy Brandt Center, together with the “Musrara School of Art Jerualem” and the Berlin based cultural association “Drei Wünsche Frei” invited young art students to work in a collaborative creative artistic processes about “Diversity”.
Young people from … we could say from Israel, from Palestine, from Germany (as well as from Russia, Poland, Mexico, Turkey and Romania). Isn’t it all about it?
But at the same time we are so much more than lockers with national flags on it.
„We are many, and I don’t know how many am I… “
This quote from Chilean writer Pablo Neruda is with me ever since I was young. Everyone I meet will become part of my memory, of my biography, of myself. In order to come to peace with myself, I have to find peace with you and give you the chance to make peace with me.
So simple, so difficult.

„Diversity“ also manifests itself in the variety of artistic expression we were working with – ranging from photography, poetry, spoken word and painting to dance and music. After a week in Berlin in August, loaded with positive energy and stunning artistic results, we met again in September in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem. Against all conventions we introduced this city not as a city of conflict, not as „the holy city “, but as a place, where we found wonderful friends. It’s not political in the way as politics are defined usually: debating, arguing, proving that I am right and you are wrong.
At the same time, everything is political, and so is art.
Art keeps alive the desire for beauty. In a time were beauty can’t protect us, each love song is cry for freedom. Let’s not surrender to a reality that is not as we want the world to be, let’s not abandon our dreams.
I see it as a great gift to have had the opportunity to guide this powerful artistic process that was started during this project.
If I look at this wonderful talented and loving people, I know there are hope and Hoffnung, Tikwa and Amal.
Thanks to everyone who made this project possible!

Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem
Center for International Encounters CIE
Support Association Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem
Drei Wünsche Frei – Studio for hybrid culture Berlin
Musrara School of Photography, Media and New Music
Supported by the europeans for peace, a programme of the Foundation EVZ (Remembrance, Responsibility and Future)

D!versity. A Performance evening at the WBC Jerusalem, September 8, 2016:

It must be of pain,
the weight on the shoulders of the little grey rock.
No legs can guide it,
no hands can hide it,
no eyes can find it,
no mind can bind it.
It must be of eternity,
the weight on the shoulders of the little grey rock.
No afterlife is of option,
no medicine of any notion,
no abortion.
It must be of sinking ships and battled grounds,
the weight on the shoulders of the little grey rock.
no caressing affection,
no dedication,
no documentation.
It must be of no gain,
the weight on the shoulders of the little grey rock.

Poem by: Noa CB
Photo by: Sara Ioana Yassin

Mittwoch, 15. Juni 2016, 19 Uhr

„On the Side of the Road“

Ein Film von Lia Tarachansky.
Die Regisseurin ist anwesend.
„On the Side of the Road“ ist eine israelische Dokumentation, die sich den Ereignissen von 1948 durch persönliche Geschichten annähert und diejenigen zu Wort kommen läßt, die eine aktive Rolle gespielt haben. Der Film zeigt, daß die Geschehnisse von 1948 weiterhin ein großes Tabu in der kollektiven Identität und Erinnerung Israels darstellen. Er beschäftigt sich mit den Fragen, die Israelis nicht stellen können, mit dem Kampf, Erinnerungen zu begraben und mit der Gewalt, eine ganze Geschichte zum Schweigen zu bringen.
Die Geschichte wird von Lia Tarachansky erzählt, die in einer israelischen Siedlung tief in der Palästinensischen Westbank aufwächst. Als 2000 die 2. Intifada ausbricht, zieht ihre Familie nach Kanada. Hier triffst sie zum 1. Mal Palästinenser*innen und beschäftigt sich mit ihrer Geschichte. Als Journalistin kehrt sie zurück nach Israel und besucht auch „ihre“ Siedlung. Während sie über die israelische Besatzung berichtet, kommt sie nicht umhin, auch das Schicksal der palästinensischen Dörfer drum herum mit einzubeziehen.
Im Film trifft Lia Menschen, die eine aktive Rolle in den Ereignissen von 1948 gespielt haben, und die – wie sie selbst – damit kämpfen, was sie aus ihrem Bewußtsein verdrängt und von der Landkarte gelöscht haben. Über Jahre hinweg bemüht sich Lia, die Zeitzeugen davon zu überzeugen, sich einer der großen Fragen der israelischen Identität und ihren eigenen Erinnerungen zu stellen.

Israel/Palästina, 2013, 83 min, Hebräisch, Arabisch mit englischen Untertiteln