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LAST THINGS AT DOCAVIV

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  If you follow the work of the Chicago-based documentarist Deborah Stratman, you know it’s not so much about stories as much as landscapes and systems. Her body of work has spanned multiple media, including sculpture, photography, drawing, and audio. The movie Last Things , which she is bringing to this edition of DocAviv, with the support of the Camões Institute of Languageand Culture and the Portuguese Embassy in Tel Aviv , is no exception. The interesting part of this movie is that it manages to intertwine the literary, philosophical, and scientific voice over—fragments from a 19th-century sci-fi novella, Clarice Lispector’s The Hour of the Star , Marcia Bjørnerud’s thoughts on time literacy, and Donna Haraway’s cyber-feminism—with sound and imagery, creating a multifaceted experience.   Last Things aims to reflect on the effects of time as the planet undergoes dramatic changes, encompassing themes of death, rebirth, and evolutionary patterns. It’s an experimental work...
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Mário-Henrique Leiria's Alliance at the European Literature Night

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  by David Rosh Pina     The European Night of Literature, a joint project of thirteen European countries—Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain—presented European literature to wide Israeli audiences and readers. Its first edition focused on the Science Fiction genre combining old stories such as Primo Levi or Mário-Henrique Leiria with modern ones. All of them were read in Hebrew.   The European Night of Literature also offered an exhibition of children’s Artwork on the Theme ‘Israel in 2300’, created by the local schools in Tel Aviv, several screenings of short animated movies, and discussions with Israeli authors.    The event was sponsored by the Czech Centre Tel Aviv, the Instituto Cervantes Tel Aviv, the Goethe Institut Israel, and the Portugal Embassy in Tel Aviv.     Mario-Henrique Leiria represented P...
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The Light That Comes From Darkness

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  By David Rosh Pina Belongings , a photo exhibition about the Ukrainian refugees, opened on Kikar Kedumim 8, in Jaffa, until December 10th, it´s a must-see.   It has been ten months since a madman in charge of major nuclear power decided to invade Ukraine. All of us around the world have lived with inflation, higher prices of energy and fuel, threats of nuclear catastrophes, if not all-out annihilation. But the human cost of this war is the most tragic consequence. American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, famously said, "War is hell." All wars are hell.     Israeli artist Rom Barnea traveled to Poland and developed with the Polish producer Julia Maria Koszewska, a groundbreaking video and photography project about the human price of this war. Over sixty refugees were interviewed and photographed. The exhibition is marvelously curated. There are installations with traditional Ukrainian craft items and a heart-breaking desk install...
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Even Death Would Choose Life

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  In the celebrations of Jose Saramago´s centenary By David Rosh Pina " The journey never ends, only travelers end. And even they can still go on in the memory, the remembrance, the narrative," wrote José Saramago, the Portuguese writer and laureate of the  1998 Nobel Prize in Literatu r e for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion, and irony [with which he] continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality.”   Born into a family of landless peasants in Azinhaga do Ribatejo, Portugal, on November 16 th , 1922, he ended his journey, aged 87.   on June 18 th , 2010, in Las Palmas, Canarias, the Spanish Atlantic islands. This year he completed 100 years but his journey goes on in our memory. To pay tribute to José Saramago on the centenary of his birth , the embassy of Portugal in Tel Aviv organized an event in the central public library of the city, Beit Ariela Shaar Zion Library, with the support of t...
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Portuguese & Israeli Writers Discuss Lockdown

During the Covid-19 pandemic me and Dorit Silverman hosted and organized with Portuguese Embassy in Tel Aviv, the Hebrew Writers Association and the Camões Institute a unique event called "Un-Locking, from physical and social lockdown to psychological and cultural lockdown" and hear the leading contemporary Portuguese and Israeli literary authors discuss how it is to write on the aftermath of the pandemic crisis. There will never be a time like the lock down and it opened the World to a new dangerous world. This is a look at the moment when it all changed. Portuguese Writers - Jose Luis Peixoto, Ana Margarida Carvalho, Matilde Campilho Israeli Writers - Shifra Horn, Sami Berdugo, Galit Dahan Carlibach Opening remarks by Tsvika Nir, Chairman of the Hebrew Writers Association        
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Alvaro Siza Vieira at the Shankar College

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 I grew up admiring Alvaro Siza Vieira’s work. The Chiado reconstruction in Lisbon the city where I was born, the pools in Matosinhos, the “Bonjour Tristesse” building in Berlin, and more recently the Iberê Camargo Foundation, and the floating office building in China. These are more than just buildings they are amazing works of art, triumphs of ingenuity and creativity, true gifts to the cities and countries where they are built.   I moved to Tel Aviv 5 years ago to start a new life and I have been living among some of the most beautiful Bauhaus buildings in the world. I am now writing my first novel about that. That’s why I’m so honored to be able to make this all come true: bringing the genius of Alvaro Siza, the last great modernist architect to an Israeli audience.   The pace of the voice, the fascinating stories that come out with slow pace, wisdom on the tip of a cigarette. Organizing and hosting this event with Alvaro Siza Vieira, one of the world's greatest l...
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Marta Pereira da Costa in Israel

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  Monday  May the 16 th  Marta Pereira da Costa, a Portuguese guitar player came to Israel to do a unique fado concert. This was a rare occasion to hear this kind of music. Fado is the Portuguese national song that draws its origins from gypsy, Sephardic, and North African musical traditions adding to them a strong nostalgic imprint. In the beginning, Marta Pereira da Costa performed with her Portuguese guitar on the ensembles of two of fado’s biggest names, who played several times in Israel, Mariza and Camané. But by 2012, she decided to abandon her work as a civil engineer in order to pursue a professional career in music as a Portuguese guitar player giving her first solo concert in Toronto and becoming the first woman to do so. Since then, she has been accumulating awards, successful albums, and concerts in some of the world’s top festivals.   The Israeli concert was part of the celebrations of the Portuguese Langu...
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