I went to see the 5th edition of Artfocus which takes place in an unfinished building located in Talpiot, an industrial zone in Jerusalem. One of the event’s aims is to create a dialogue between contemporary artists from Israel and abroad and let them consider political and cultural issues. Of course, the city of Jerusalem seems to be an appropriate place to consider these questions, but as the curators Ami Barak and Bernard Blistène explain, they intentionally chose a neutral space disconnected from Jerusalem’s history.

Out of the 66 works displayed in the event, there was one piece, ‘Sabbath 2008’ by the artist Nira Pereg, that I found really interesting. The video shows the closing down of the ultra-orthodox neighborhoods at the entrance of sabbath in Jerusalem. I couldn’t find the video online so here’s a picture from the video and a link to Pereg’s website: http://www.10fingers.tv/Nirap/Sabbath01.html

‘This is just one of some of the works I enjoyed, but I think that the main problem with the pavilion was that there were TOO many videos to watch. Making me unable to focus at artfocus5!For more information: http://artfocus.org.il/en/

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