1: There are no Art Fairs in Jerusalem. Why? Because its culture budget couldn't even cover the invitations. There are no auction sales and commercial galleries in Jerusalem too. Why? Because there aren't enough collectors. By the un-written law that sets the rules of the equation, the lack of commercials art galleries, collectors and art festivals means that there's no art in Jerusalem at all. Here's an idea for a seminar in a culture studies department: If there are no commercial art galleries, no rich collectors and no powerful show-offs, how come that Jerusalem's weekly magazine says that in any given week there are more than 60 art exhibitions in different spaces?




2: A day tour in Jerusalem's main sites could teach the visitor a short lesson about money-power-culture and politics relations. He may start in the "Bezalel Academy for Art and Design". The campus was built on Mount Scopus. Its architecture reminds of a military stronghold. The windows are hidden by concrete, and the view is hardly seen. After leaving the art school, the visitor can move to the center of town, where the local Acropolis is based. He'll pass the Parliament house, the government offices and the Hebrew University. Eventually he'll enter the Israeli Museum-- a modern masterpiece of architecture that looks like a Mies Van Der-Rohe variation on an Arabic village, with its small white cubes outstretching on the hill, in a leniar structure that could be expend forever.



The third site in the tour would be The Jerusalem Moll-- the city's biggest an most exclusive shopping center, which was built and designed like a neo-classic temple, with it's artificial credos and the central glass cupola.


One might get the impression that the expected path a young Israeli artist has to go threw on his way to success starts with a school's training (in a building that reminds of a military base), so he could "capture" the Museum (that looks like an Arabic village), gain the goal and enter the moll (the modern temple).


Here's another idea for a seminar: How come that there are no art fairs in a city with such divine consumption ideals?



3: The previous paragraphs might leave the reader slightly confused. On one hand, the local authorities invest money and efforts in order to turn Jerusalem into a worldwide center and an economic empire. Meanwhile, local artists found independent and non-commercial art spaces. They work voluntarily, with no intension to see a penny.



Here's a final idea for a seminar: Does art and artists really need these giant Festivals?



Yonatan Amir

Jerusalem

March 2006