Tali Keren’s New Jerusalem is a research project which gave rise to a “bureaucratic musical performance” at the monthly meeting of the Jerusalem City Council. A cantor sang parts of the codex of the municipal outline plan, Plan 2000, to the mayor and council members. The plan, which was never authorized but is nevertheless implemented in situ, is the first plan drafted in Jerusalem since the 1967 occupation and the annexation of East Jerusalem; the document refers to a “united” Jerusalem and describes it as the capital of the “Jewish-democratic” state. By combining two types of appeal to the public – a religious ceremony and an administrative ceremony – the performance analyzes the text of the plan, which consists of legal language intertwined with messianic rhetoric. It thus exposes the routine textual expression of a charged ideology.

The video, documenting the performance at the City Hall, is presented alongside another video, which features text captions sung by the cantor, and next to them comments by Efrat Cohen-Bar (Director of Planning and Community at Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights, ho filed the administrative petition against the plan), Yair Gabai (former member of the Jerusalem City Council and the District Committee for Planning and Construction; among the most prominent right-wing objectors to the plan), and Eli Jaffe (the composer of the eponymous piece, New Jerusalem, written especially for the project). Their comments reflect the multiplicity of viewpoints at this charged space, and the danger in drifting towards demagogy and incitement. The ceremony on video seems to evolve without special drama, as the satisfied council members are busy with their cell phones. Fusing a political text with religious music may be interpreted as a critical act; at the same time, the governing body seems to regard it as a flattering reflection of its power, and in fact appropriates the art and “recruits” the artist to its service.

Maayan Sheleff