I recently returned from Tel Aviv where I was invited to present work at Performance Art Platform as part of the Thursday/Saturday Nights Monthly Program. The Special Cabaret Program featured work by Hadas Gertman, Michal Herner-Rozenman and (me) Greg Walloch.
In Hadas Gertman's Tales About The Private Closet, Hadas performs her personal history connected to various dresses that she has sewn over the years. While using spoken word she slips in and out of outfits to the soundtrack of Maurice Ravel's Boléro.
Michal Herner-Rozenman with Yaron David (Pictured Left) explore a series of actions that are all at once moving, disturbing, sensual, yet detached in Fisting. I presented a series of short collected stories and invited an audience member to dance in Fuck The Disabled.
This performance experience was something completely different for me. It was such a pleasure to experience the sharpness and sensitivity of the audiences in Tel Aviv and to have the opportunity to approach my work feeling breathless and new about it.
Earlier in the week I went to see The Second Law of Thermodynamics featuring Ensemble 209 members Tamar Raban, Guy Gutman, Lior Amir-Kariel, Daniel Bruk, Bayne Gatuhune, Yousef Salame, Yana Fridman, Beni Kori, and (visiting artist) Ya'acov Chefetz.
Ushered into the performance space by Lior Amir-Kariel via an old fashioned school roll call, the audience are transformed into students. The infantalized spectators are seated by assigned numbers in sunken rows that are in the center of a raised stage.The often kinetic sound, action, and video of the piece takes place overhead and three hundred and sixty degrees around the students as the ensemble takes us through nine lessons. In the lesson on Hygiene and Cleanliness Yana Fridman walks through the rows of pupils scrupulously inspecting our dirty hands and issuing wet towels.
Tamar Raban copies lines from The Health Notebook in white chalk onto the walls of the performance space, often transcribing each new line of text on top of the line she has just written. This is one of the elements that creates texture and a natural soundtrack to accompany the performance. The Health Notebook was published in 1947 for the pupils of the first Hebrew school.
At the conclusion of The Second Law of Thermodynamics the rows of desks are lifted and the participants are freed to return to their adult lives. These are just a few examples from this dynamic performance piece.
Although I don't speak hebrew, I could feel the intention of the ironic, institutionalized classroom and appreciate the tenderness as each ensemble member stepped forward to tell a quieter personal story.
Ensemble 209 at Performance Art Platform are such an inspiring community of creative people. I feel fortunate and am grateful for what this experience afforded me personally and as an artist. My heartfelt thanks to artistsic director Tamar Raban, curator and friend Yaron David, the lovely Beni and Jacaranda Kori, and all of the people at Performance Art Platform for their hospitality. A perfect end to the closing year and a wonderful beginning to the new one.
Thanks to all the folks who tune to read this web log. Have a Happy New Year, see you in 2006!
