“The high holidays” is a city-wide cycle of performances linked to the holidays that start the Jewish calendar. The series is developed with and presented at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Sophiensaele and the Gropius Bau.
Rosh Hashanah / 24.09 / Ritual and gathering / Beba, Gropius Bau
In the week of Rosh Hashanah, aka Jewish New Year’s, we are inviting you for a special ritual and gathering in Gropius Bau’s Beba. Rosh HaShanah is a special moment filled with contradiction: celebration and grief, memory and renewal, personal introspection and communal festivities live side by side, and in their conjunction invite transformation. Hosted by Ashbel with musicians Jessica Gadani and Ruth Rosenfeld, the evening will address ritualistic tradition through conversation and live music, making the jewish festivity an inclusive site for all to enjoy. Reaching out to each other beyond the confines of background, language and tribe, the occasion will be a communal moment of joy, reflection, and transformation, hoping for a better year.
Tickets and info
Yom Kippur / 04.10+05.10 / Dialectics of Departure – walk ft. Rachel Libeskind / HAU Hebbel am Ufer
“Dialectics of Departure” is the practice of performative walks by Ariel Efraim Ashbel and Rachel Libeskind, exploring Berlin’s Jewish history and transforming it into contemporary inclusive rituals.
The piece takes place on the week of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, the holiest day in the jewish calendar. On this day, we’re asked to shed the burdens of our past transgressions and emerge with renewed social contracts through asking for forgiveness, making amends and reflecting on the past year.
The site will be the “Ufer” of Hebbel am Ufer: the Landwehrkanal. Walking along the man-made water path, one of the industrial veins of Berlin, we will explore potentials for rewriting our stories, reflect on rituals of renewal and release, with the hope of tracing new alternatives for thinking together that, like water, are fluid, unstable and in constant movement.
Tickets and info
Sukkot / 08.10 – 12.10 / Hosting the hosts: performances and events / Sophiensaele
“Sukkot” is the plural of “Sukkah”: a hut, tent or other temporary dwelling. In the mythical narrative, the term refers to the huts in which the Israelites slept during their journey through the desert after departing from Egypt. The main tradition of this holiday is hosting: A Sukkah is built to live in for a week. In it, one invites friends, family members and strangers to gather. for “the high holidays of 5786”, a sukkah will be built in the Sophiensæle Festsaal. The events during this week will focus on artists who consider hosting as a central principle in their work. The sukkah thus becomes the setting for an unfolding of knowledge exchange and conversation. The gatherings take on very different forms: part workshop, part hangout, talk, concert and party. Everything remains in motion: Guests become hosts and hosts become guests in a constantly changing negotiation.
Tickets and info
a Hanukkah backflip / 19.12 / a light-specific play ft. Alona Rodeh / Gropius Bau
Hanukkah is the holiday of warmth and light. As the weather gets colder and the sky darker, jewish people get together around the “Hanukkia” – the traditional candelabra, for eight nights, gradually adding candles in a symbolic act that uplifts hope and community in the darkest of times. As the dark times of this year seem to get even darker, the final occasion of the series will be a performance that reflects on these ideas, embedding them in the urban space. This finale of the series, which includes a night walk and an audio-visual intervention, is hosted by and developed with the Gropius Bau, and will be led by Ashbel and longtime collaborator and dear friend, visual artist Alona Rodeh.
[Tickets and info coming soon!]
