We came out of the first lockdown. We were already assembled and eager to dance the journey of the Muses, despite the isolation imperative. Our bodies trembled with anticipation of the first meeting with the audience, who is now (the) hakahaLahakah itself. We found shelter in an exotic greenhouse, slated for demolition, in a garden in Tel Aviv. “See through me”, it whispers, and we answered her call unhesitatingly. Equipped with ancient values, the hakahaLahakah attended to a ritual of grief within the boundaries of the greenhouse. To complete the task, we were assisted by a young greenhouse specialist, cinema artist Jonathan Omer Mizrahi, who helped us reconnect with our romantic and ironic nature. Tapping into the zeitgeist, the dance ritual will pay a dreamy visit to the cinema studio.

We continued onward to a residency in Avital Geva’s Greenhouse in Kibbutz Ein Shemer, the most ready-made-in-Israel place in the history of art. Geva’s Greenhouse isn’t trying to duplicate the world, but rather to shape it. Its desperate, avant-garde gesture helped us deal with our inability to control the climate and the theater of the Anthropocene. In fact, these singular times have opened up a portal through which we sense the transformation that lies within our powerlessness. We are reminded of the paradigm of extinction as we fall into the happiness of existing in a greenhouse whose days are numbered, a greenhouse that governs our utopian fantasy about art. Thus, this Green MUSEum, cultivates our movement toward a multiplicity of experiences – experiences of the crises of nature, art, and the place we call Israel.

---

Shot in the Ecological Greenhouse Ein Shemer, and a condemned greenhouse in Tel Aviv

Films by Jonathan Omer Mizrahi With Avital Geva, Atar Geva, Noam Geva

A Choreography by hakahaLahakah

Choreography and Dance: Dror Birger, Tamar Even Chen, Hila Gluskinos, Yuli Kovbasnian, Shay Kukui, Kobi Swissa, Amit Tina, Yael Weiss

Original Music: Or Rimer

Artistic Adivsor: Ido Feder

Production Design: Jonathan Omer Mizrahi, Ido Feder

Camera Assistance: Noa Simhayof Shahaf

Production Coordination: Aviv Shechori, Hadas Feder

Original Song The Quest after the Weird Written and Performed by Hila Gluskinos

Venues: Ecological Greenhouse Ein Shemer & A destroyed greenhouse in Tel Aviv

Thanks to Ruti Direktor, Uri Zamir, Geva Family, Irin Nehmani, Dr. Yuval Sapir, Marat Beltser, Reut Shemesh, Catalina Bucos, Walter Solon, Shaul Mizrahi, Nouli Omer, Ariel Sereni Brown

︎ EP. INDEX  NEXT EPISODE ︎