'Asif Festival' is taking place for the third year and stands on two firm pillars: promoting and developing new voices in contemporary dance, alongside values of aesthetic diversity, rooted in a variety of backgrounds, practices, 'schools', geographic and cultural locations from which the artists come. The value of diversity connects to the broader values of 'Kelim' of inclusion and promotion of various ages, abilities, cultures, and styles.

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At the heart of the festival are the young choreographers, the future generation of contemporary dance in Israel, presenting seven premiere works. New voices experiencing the present reality through their bodies, highlighting the human body as an arena in which hope unfolds as a Sisyphean action, despair and struggle are expressed through black humor, loss of control as both a physical and mental occurrence, and faith and striving forward as a mode of response and coping.

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Thus, Asif Festival 2024 for new choreography is colored by the tones of war. This year, the premiere works, discussion events, and special festival events aim to respond, testify, reflect, teach, and learn through the body of the now. The body in direct encounter with the audience, the body in encounter with video and sound mediums, the body in encounter with other bodies less familiar to it.

This space, of a festival for young creation, is a liminal space, a kind of threshold perhaps forecasting futures. A space that allows and gives room to wavering, open, fluid, questioning voices, those not yet fully formed and often not yet 'aligned', therefore rawer and more innovative. At 'Kelim' we strive to provide a nourishing, supportive space that accompanies the production and also educates in respectful collegiality, planting the foundations for sustainable conduct for those active in the field, especially in Asif Festival, which is sometimes a first step for them in a long career.

 

A central channel in this year’s festival is the series of 'Mishmar' events, three special events led by the artist Tzipi Nir, inviting artists from diverse mediums to stay, experience, and experiment in a shared night of study, reading Jewish world philosophy, engaging in peer discussions, and even a space for collaborative creation in groups. The Mishmar meetings take place twice in the two weeks leading up to the festival, then open their doors to the public for a third event within the festival, inviting the audience to read, talk, experience, and be present.
'Mishmar' is a concept from Jewish tradition describing a night of study beginning on Thursday and ending Friday morning. The start is at night, precisely when we are accustomed to ending the day, with its conclusion at dawn marking the start of a new day. Thus, the Mishmar offers a time of shared presence 'outside of time'.

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In these days, of extremes and poles, of fear and anxiety from outside and within, feelings of hatred and disappointment between people, we choose to extend a hand to new encounters, connections, and learning from what may be less familiar to us. We present the Mishmar project at 'Kelim' as a shining proposal for opportunities to be exposed, embrace complexity, seek inspiration, and pursue accumulated knowledge that can serve as a compass of values. A proposal to dwell in the unknown, ask questions, continue to grow, and expand as individuals and as a society.

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Curating the festival is an opportunity to look at the field, to pick certain elements from it, and to create a new context for them through discovery, weaving, and creation of something new – a story, an idea, a belief, or at least a proposal. At 'Asif', creators surprisingly came together gradually, most of them coming from worlds of religion and faith. This connection, between contemporary Western dance, often associated with secularism and liberalism, and religious backgrounds often associated with conservatism and nationalism, what does it produce? What does it seek to be? What does it aim to say and declare? As part of a participatory event on the festival’s opening day – Art/Faith – we invite each creator to speak about the faith from which they came, and their current faith. About the place where the work was conceived, and where it meets our present reality. Between faith and dance, faith in its broad context and dance in its broad context.