The Jerusalem Season of Culture is a cultural festival running each summer in Jerusalem. One of the best annual events in Jerusalem, the city hosts a series of riveting artistic experiences spanning the worlds of dance, music, poetry, art, performance, and more. The Jerusalem Season of Culture is modeled on other prominent international cultural festivals around the world and highlights the city’s diverse and flourishing art scene. The festival is set to be spectacular featuring performances from world-renowned acts. In 2012, the Jerusalem Season of Culture will run between June 20 to September 8.
Jerusalem Season of Culture 2012
Ron Arad's exhibition 720 degrees
The Jerusalem Season of Culture 2012 is the second year that the festival has taken over the summer cultural calendar of the city. It will feature hundreds of artists from Jerusalem and around the world who will together create a diverse tapestry of cultural events. Here are some highlights of the Jerusalem Season of Culture 2012.
Going up: Jerusalem – Reality & Art Alongside Route no.1 (June 21-27, 2012). 25 artists, social activists, and intellectuals will make the pilgrimage from the Neve Shalom communal village to Jerusalem. Broadcast live online, the project will provoke discussion and draw thought around the subject of Jerusalem as a place that Jews, Christians and Muslims are constantly trying to reach. The pilgrimage will end in a communal tent which will be erected for 24 hours in Jerusalem—in which the artists will exhibit the work they produced during the journey, and to which the general public is invited to come and take part.
Balabasta at the 2011 Jerusalem Season of Culture. Image: Snir Kazir
Under the Mountain 2012—A festival of New Public Art (July 14-August 4, 2012). A week-long series of shows, activities, workshops, and gatherings which will be focused around the traditional ‘town square’ – a place of dialogue, politics, and passion. Events include “political Karaoke” in which the public will be invited to choose and perform a rendition of one of 50 political speeches, a watermelon stall that will be set up in what was “no man’s land” separating west and east Jerusalem from 1948-67, as well as other planned events.
In-House Festival (July 3-5, 2012). Drawing discussion around the question of ‘what is a house?’, theatrical, dance, and musical performances around the topic.
Contact Point—an all-night arts festival at the Israel Museum (July 12, 2012). The audience will be invited to let go of traditional ideas of what a museum visit involves – it will be an unforgettable experience including a blindfolded group tour, songs of love, a continuous concert in which the audience sits back on mattresses, a silent party, and an electronic chill out after party in the Shrine of the Book (home to the Dead Sea Scrolls)
Contact Point at the 2011 Season of Culture
Ron Arad-720 Degrees (August 15-September 4, 2012). Ron Arad is one of Israel’s great artistic exports, and his ’720 degrees’ installation will be unveiled for three weeks in the Art Garden of the Israel Museum Jerusalem. Sitting alongside Picasso and Moore, the exhibition features 5,600 silicon rods suspended from a height of 8 meters to form a perfect circle which provides an empty digital canvas in which video art works will be featured. Every evening, a surprise performance will take place as part of the exhibit, which will be on view Saturday to Thursday evenings from 20:00 to 23:00.
Balabasta-Culture in the market (The first three Mondays in August). ‘Balabasta’ features cultural encounters in the buzz of the Machane Yehuda Market of central Jerusalem. Ba’al tshuva settler reggae, Hebrew-Arabic-Gibberish rap, Amharic poetry, Jewish folk, shofar blowing, and Anglo-Saxon blues will mingle alongside the bustle of the market.
Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival-24 hours of sacred music throughout the city (September 6-7, 2012). Venues across Jerusalem, centered around the Tower of David Museum will feature musicians from Israel and abroad, from different traditions, who will interpret and renew the concept of ‘sanctity’. Musical direction will be given, among others by the man behind the three-part Sunbeat Music Festival.
Tickets for Jerusalem Season Culture
For details about tickets and the other events taking place as part of the Season of Culture, check out the Festival website at www.jerusalemseason.com
