Rehearsing the Spectacle of Spectres by Nir Evron and Omer Krieger ■

Rehearsing the Spectacle of Spectres are the opening words of a poem written by Anadad Eldan (b. 1924), a member of Kibbutz Be'eri, a collective community in the south of Israel, founded in 1946 near the Gaza strip. Eldan, the Kibbutz Poet, wrote librettos for kibbutz ceremonies, holiday performances and agricultural pageants, and also published numerous books of his own lyrical poetry. Eldan's poetry is characterized by an intricate and aliterative style, phonetically musical, based on a rich and ancient Hebrew. As the writer of collective language and Bible teacher for generations of kibbutz members, Eldan is widely admired but also considered as a controversial and peculiar artist.

The video was shot in and around Be'eri, as Evron and Krieger invited a group of kibbutz members to recite the 26 verses of this opaque and suggestive poem. These sequences are combined with aerial and outdoor shots showing sites of assembly, stages of collective expression, public sculpture and architecture and place the Kibbutz in its geographical context, next to Gaza.

“Today, following the Hamas massacre and the war crimes committed against the kibbutz members in their homes, public, private, and agricultural spaces, the work takes on prophetic connotations that emphasize the destruction and devastation of both soul and body. The personal words of Anadad Eldan pierce the collective heart of the Be’eri community, becoming a national text in the life of all of Israel.” 

Benjamin Freidenberg, Envisioning Tomorrow, Constructing Yesterday, Cultural Treasures Magazine

https://culturetreasures.com/rehearsing-the-spectacle-of-spectres/ 

Produced by Nir Evron, Omer Krieger
Commissioned by Kibbutz Be’eri Gallery

Participants:
Hagay Avni
Carmit Dvori
Anadad Eldan
Marcel Visel
Asaf Weiss
Ziva Yellin

Cinematography: Yair Agmon
Sound Design: Binya Reches
Digital Compositing: Ido Shor
Kibbutz Be’eri Gallery Curator: Ziva Yellin
Assistant Curator: Sofie Berzon-MacKie