Programma | Issue 2

Editor's Note

We are happy to bring you the second issue of Programma magazine, dealing with art here and now - here, being a relative term, depending on one’s geographic location and subjective point of view.
Reality and its uncertainties are discussed in an interview with British director Nick Broomfield, a pioneer of documentary filmmaking who injected the genre with a dose of pronounced subjectivity. The interview by Shira Ben-Simon appears in the “Prologues” section, but the question of reality and objectivity pops up again and again throughout the issue – in James Trainor’s review of comics-style journalism by graphic novelist Joe Sacco, in Andreas Schlaegel’s piece on video artist Omer Fast and in Noam Segal’s look at the division between sound and image in Smadar Dreyfus’ art.
This issue also focuses on two young artists, Nira Pereg and Naama Tsabar (the winner and runner-up, respectively, of the Gottesdiener Israeli art prize) who are joined by their advisers and mentors Boris Groys and Jon Kessler for discussions of their work.
Spaces of art, the potential they hold and their realization are considered in Dor Guez’s examination of the planned Umm al-Fahm Museum and in Yonatan Amir’s look at the new permanent collection of Israeli art at the Israel Museum.
Continuing a subject that was raised in the first issue of Programma, 15 artists who in recent years migrated away from their homeland were asked to give voice to their thoughts and feelings on the subject of “foreignness.” The result is a 25-page section of texts and images revealing myriad sides of the immigrant’s experience in this perplexing “global village” in which we live.
And last, but certainly not least, British critic Ben Lewis questions the criteria by which art today should be judged, in a provocative article that calls for the return of certain standards in an era plagued by decadence.
It is left for the reader to decide if this is an objective or subjective analysis of the state of art

The Programma Team

Editor: Rachella Sandbank
Graphic Editor and co-editor: Lahav Halevy
Producer: Dalit Nemirovsky
Content Editor: Noam Segal
Copy Editor: Anat Rosenberg
Product assistant: Moria Goldstein
Translator: Talya Halkin
Graphic Design: BigEyesAgency, Shachar Cotani
Publishers: Mati Broudo and Dalit Nemirovsky

Prologues

THE SOUND OF SILENCE ¬ Rachella Sandbank
A recent protest during a London concert of the Jerusalem Quartet raises questions about cultural boycott.

Meanwhile, Back in the Ghetto ¬ Etan Bloom
A new production of Joshua Sobol’s Ghetto raises disturbing questions about all that has changed in the past 26 years.

For Palestine is Missing from Palestine ¬ Udi Aloni
Some thoughts on Elia Suleiman’s new film The Time That Remains: Chronicle of a Present Absentee

hanging on ¬ Photographs by Gilad Kavalerchik
Artist Tamar Getter and curator Naomi Aviv hang the exhibition “GO2.”

A New Twist ¬ Anat Rosenberg
A performance art festival taking place in Tel Aviv in early June features works that are all unique hybrids.

We Have Gathered Here ¬ Amir Menasheof
Literary reviews in Hebrew are experiencing a strange and unexpected renaissance.

Facing the Camera ¬ Shira Ben-Simon
Long before other docu-activists garnered worldwide attention, English director
Nick Broomfield changed the rules of documentary filmmaking.

Features

My Man’s Gone Now ¬ Lahav Halevy
On February 4, 2010, artist Meir Pichhadze passed away at age 55. Lahav Halevy first met him in the mid-’90s on the doorstep of a New York gallery.

The Eye of the Storm ¬ Noam Segal
By undoing the relations between sound and image, Smadar Dreyfus forges a new territory, compelling the viewer to re-examine familiar, everyday experiences.

Legal Aliens
Fifteen artists were asked by Programma magazine to express their thoughts and feelings about living away from what was once home.

The Hard Pulse of Regularity ¬ Boris Groys
Nira Pereg, winner of the 2010 Gottesdiener Prize for Israeli art, in conversation with professor of art Boris Groys.

Freedom’s Just Another Word ¬ Jon Kessler
Naama Tsabar, one of three finalists for the Gottesdiener Prize for Israeli art, in conversation with her teacher, Jon Kessler.

Nothing but the Truth ¬ Andreas Schlaegel
Omer Fast’s video installations question the way we tell ourselves stories and construct meanings.

Into The Dustbin ¬ Ben Lewis
Eight aspects of art produced in the last 20 years suggest that we are once again in a decadent era for art.

Welcome to Umm al-Fahm Museum of art ¬ Dor Guez
The future Umm al-Fahm Museum of Art possesses the potential to present a “new” narrative to an population accustomed to a limited cultural and historical discourse.

A Canon in Three Voices ¬ Yonatan Amir
The reopening of the Israel Museum marks the inauguration of what is, unbelievably, the country’s first permanent exhibition of Israeli art.

Graphic Details ¬ James Trainor
A mash-up of illustrated memoir, oral history and scrupulous front-line journalism make Joe Sacco the perfect witness to the Middle East conflict.

Dances with Taboos ¬ Burcu Yuksel
Satanism, vandalism, anti-nationalism and just plain rudeness – Turkish artist Halil Altindere has been accused of that and more.

Between the Lines ¬ Dana Gillerman
An impressive number of artists’ books have been published in Israel over the past decade. A leaf through ten of the best.

The Art of Giving ¬ Ayelet Elstein
Behind the scenes of most museums in Israel you will find BFAMI – British Friends of Art Museums of Israel.

Artists in residence

Sigal Primor / ShaI Zurim / Jan Tichy