RECENT NEWS

"Waltz with Bashir" nominated for an Oscar

Waltz With Bashir is a highly acclaimed animated film by Ari Folman who directed and starred as a traumatized Israeli veteran trying to recover his memories of the first Lebanon War. Friends of Bezalel is proud that Ari is a faculty member at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem and that all the animators on the film trained at Bezalel. "Waltz With Bashir" won six awards from the Israeli Film Academy, including Best Picture. This film is an international sensation, creating a buzz at the Cannes Film Festival. "Waltz With Bashir" was featured in the 46th New York Film Festival, where it had its U.S. premiere. In the U.S., the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that the film was among nine foreign-language films chosen from among 65 entries. It was the second triumph for "Waltz" in a week; the film also won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. This exciting news solidified the film's front-runner status to take home Israel's first Oscar at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony in the Best Foreign Film.

The New York Times' A. O. Scott wrote a rave review:

........"Waltz With Bashir" is a memoir, a history lesson, a combat picture, a piece of investigative journalism and an altogether amazing film. Directed by Ari Folman, an Israeli filmmaker whose struggle to make sense of his experience as a soldier in the Lebanon war of 1982 shapes its story, "Waltz" is by no means the world's only animated documentary, a phrase that sounds at first like a cinematic oxymoron. Movies like Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" and Brett Morgen's "Chicago 10" have used animation to make reality seem more vivid and more strange, producing odd and fascinating experiments. But Mr. Folman has gone further, creating something that is not only unique but also exemplary, a work of astonishing aesthetic integrity and searing moral power......

The film belongs to a rare genre called "animated documentary". The Guardian called it "an extraordinary, harrowing, provocative picture".

The Friends of Bezalel congratulates all the Bezalel faculty and graduates who were involved in the creation of this masterpiece and we congratulate YOU, the Friends of Bezalel, for generously supporting the training that made this world-wide sensation possible. Your continued support will help nurture future Israeli artists whose accomplishments bring accolades to the Academy and to Israel.

Image Credit: Ari Folman and David Polonsky/Sony Pictures.

Flowers of Bezalel

Bezalel's most recent and important initiative is called the Perach Program (Flowers of Bezalel). Every Sunday, children from poor neighborhoods in Jerusalem and the surrounding area come to the Academy and work with Bezalel students who teach art workshops in the departments of Ceramics and Glass, Industrial Design, Jewelry, Fashion and Screen-Based Art. The student counselors in the Perach program host the young visitors with the goal of helping them relax from the tension they have been experiencing over the past 8 years. The Bezalel volunteers help them nurture their talent and develop new skills. Last Sunday, children from Sderot and other towns near Gaza, came to Bezalel for a hands-on experience as a respite from the strain of living with the near-constant shelling of their homes. Among the many activities the children enjoyed, were glass blowing, printing and the production of an animated film. Bezalel students have volunteered to travel to Beersheva to lead art workshops for young people whose lives have been disrupted by the recent violence in Gaza.

Yael Bartana at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

Make sure to catch Yael Bartana's one-woman installation at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. This Bezalel graduate's exhibition will continue through May 4, 2009. P.S.1 presents the work of Bartana, whose work explores the intersection of society and politics. Over the last several years, she has become known for her complex visualizations in the forms of photography, film, video, and sound works and installations. Well-known in Europe, where she exhibited at the Pompidou Center in Paris last year, her work has not been shown in the U.S. until now. On view in the First Floor Drawing and Painting Galleries from October 19, 2008 until May 4, 2009, this is Bartana's first solo exhibition at a New York institution.
Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) completed a charrette—an architectural design workshop—led by Yale University's School of Architecture in June. Also participating were architectural teams from Bezalel Academy in Israel and consulting architects from Jordan and Palestine. After meeting with key stakeholders including area mayors, community leaders, and local consultants, the teams worked together to design plans for the proposed Israeli-Jordanian cross border Peace Park located in the areas of the Three Bridges, Naharayim, Bakoora, and the Peace Island.


Bezalel MFA Graduates Exhibition
May 29-June 28 Tel Aviv
Please contact us if you wish to attend: info@bezalelfriends.org


Ohad Meromi, 1992 Bezalel Graduate, has won the Jasper Johns Young Artist Prize from the John King Foundation. His interview in the Jewish Week is thought provoking. Read more.


Netally Shlosser, a Fine Art graduate, won the Rappaport Prize for a Young Israeli Artist.
http://www.tamuseum.com/museum/exhibitions.asp


Mey and Boaz Cohen, third year students in the Industrial Design department won first prize at the international competition, “Dining in 2015,” the competition was held in Milan where almost 500 designers participated from 98 countries. http://www.designboom.com/macef08win.html http://www.bezalel.ac.il/en/news/item/?id=151


Maya Zack, Bezalel graduate and lecturer, won first place in the Video Art Festival in Berlin. http://www.bezalel.ac.il/en/news/item/?id=156


Anat Litwin, Bezalel graduate has curated an interesting show, HomeBase III, a site specific art project exploring notions of home. Please visit the exhibit or explore more: http://www.homebaseproject.com/

The Bezalel Academy holds its Board of Governors meeting May 24-25 in Jerusalem. The esteemed and renowned architect, Santiago Calatrava is the guest speaker. Calatrava is the designer of the new bridge at the entrance of Jerusalem opening the following day.


Larchmont Temple Art Fair
May 17 and May 18
www.larchmonttemple.org
Take time to visit the Larchmont Temple Art Fair, celebrating the 60th Birthdays of Larchmont Temple and the State of Israel May 17 and 18. Our Bezalel graduates are well represented and include recent graduates of the Academy as well as artists Laura Murlender and Sara Aldouby There are original works as well as etchings and monotypes.


Women’s Tales: Four Leading Israeli Jewelers
The Newark Museum
March 19 through June 25
www.newarkmuseum.org/museum_default_page.aspx?id=4292
Four Israeli women, each a leading figure in the studio jewelry movement translate their lives and experiences into powerful and beautiful works of art. Three of the four artists are Bezalel Graduates: Bianca Eshel–Gershuni, Vered Kaminski, Esther Knobel! Please check our website for more information about a Friends of Bezalel event in May.


Yael Bartana,, is exhibiting at the Centre Pompidou (Paris), February 13 – May 19. Yael will be having a solo show at PS1 in October. Read more about Yael Bartana.

Miri Segal, Bezalel Academy Fine Art lecturer and Ruti Sela, Academy Fine Art Graduate are exhibiting at the Chelsea Art Museum in the exhibition, Only Connect. (Miri Segal was also represented at the Armory Show in New York City.) www.chelseaartmuseum.org


Friends of Bezalel Board member, Manon Slome, Chief Curator, the Chelsea Museum of Art, is lecturing at the Academy in Jerusalem in April. The subject is terrorism and its echoes in contemporary art and is in conjunction with the exhibition, The Aesthetics of Terror. In early March Manon spoke at the Plaza for the United States Israeli Executive Summit.

Spring Semester at the Academy begins in snowstorm with 1800 students and 40 Exchange Students
Amidst the Jerusalem snowstorms Bezalel 's spring semester commenced February 17th with MORE THAN 1800 students, including 40 international exchange students who have chosen to spend a semester studying at the Academy. The incoming exchange students come from around the globe: France, Mexico, Germany, Australia, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Korea, India, Belgium, Finland, Canada, Austria, Brazil, and of course the U.S. This year's exchange program has hosted two students from California College of the Arts, one from School of Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and two from Rhode Island School of Design.

Twenty-one Bezalel students were accepted to study for a semester of exchange in the U.S. including six to the School of Visual Arts, N.Y., two to Cooper Union School of Art, N.Y., two to Carnegie Mellon School of Art, Pittsburgh, one to Rhode Island School of Design, two to School of Museum of Fine Art, Boston, three to Maryland, two to California College of the Arts, one to San Francisco Art Institute, and one to North Arizona Univeristy.


Bezalel student, Lior Yisroel and Shalva design Society Trophy in joint educational initiative
On February 21, when President Peres hosted the children of Shalva and the championship basketball team of Hapoel Yerushalyim, all of Jerusalem turned out to help celebrate the team’s wininng the coveted Israel Basketball Cup in a victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The Shalva Children chose the Beit HaNassi event to present an award of their own. Following a touching musical performance, Hapoel Yerushalyim Manager Danny Klein was presented with Shalva’s own “Society Trophy.” Bezalel art student Lior Yisroel and Shalva youngsters created it as part of a joint-education initiative.


Bezalel students promote plastic-bag-free shopping in Mahaneh Yehudah
Bezalel is improving the environment by impressing the public with the need to utilize fabric bags rather than nylon, plastic or paper. BAGIR. one of Israel’s leading textile and men’s fashion companies, has collaborated with Bezalel industrial design students to produce shopping bags made from fabric, utilizing recycled materials.

Aside from being reusable many times over, the fabric bag can be folded up and placed in a pocket book or tote bag for ready availability.