The look of love

Yesterday my Hebrew ulpan took a walking trip around the streets HaNeviim Boulevard, Ethiopia Street, and Rav Kook Street. Last week we had read about these places in our Hebrew textbook. Prior to our outing, everyone in the uplan had been assigned locations throughout our walk to research in groups of two or three and then present to the rest of the class when we arrived at each place. My group was assigned Ethipoia Street and the Ethiopian Church. One of us spoke about the architecture of the church, one of us spoke about the history of the church, and I spoke about the history of Ethiopia Street.

Ethiopia Street was named after the church, which along with most of the buildings and houses, was built at the end of the 1800s. Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia built most of the houses on the street in order to collect rent that would be used to support the church. The original nursing school of Hadassah Hospital was first located on Ethiopia Street in the building that is now

One of the most famous former residents of Ethiopia Street was Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the man who was the pioneer in the revival and modernization of Hebrew as a spoken language. Eliezer Ben Yehuda created thousands of new words in Hebrew and wrote the first Modern Hebrew dictionary. Many places throughout Israel including Ben Yehuda street, the main street of Israel’s downtown City Center outside of the walls of the Old City.

The last stop on our trip was the eponymous former residence of Anna Ticho, a famous Israeli painter. Today the Ann Ticho house is a museum where her work can be seen, as well as other exhibits, and a location for chamber music concerts. It also houses the Little Jerusalem restaurant where our ulpan had an end of the session lunch together.

One of the current exhibitions at the Ticho house is a collection of photography by Austrian Avant garde artist VALIE EXPORT (yes, all caps, a name she took from a brand of cigarettes). Today I returned to the Ticho House to watch a feature film by EXPORT, being screened in conjunction with the Jerusalem Film Festival. The Jerusalem Film Festival, now in its 26^th year, is a ten-day international festival that screens nearly 200 films from 45 countries, which just happened to be taking place this year during my time at the yeshiva.

The VALIE EXPORT film screened was “The Practice of Love” from 1984. It is one of a handful of films shown at the festival this year that is not a brand new release. VALIE EXPORT herself was present for the screening, and described it as a transition piece for her, from Avant Gard to narrative film. It explores the concepts of voyeurism, being on display, and love as an objectification and a performance.

The film is an anti romance, mixed with a detective story, mixed with a study of the objectification of the human body, mixed with Avant garde filmmaking. Judith, the protagonist, is in relationship with two men (one of whom is also married and knows of her other lover), while investigated an unsolved murder that turns out to be connected to a gun smuggling operation (she later discovers her other lover is a major part of both the murder and the gun smuggling). The film plays heavily with the idea of voyeurism, what it means to look and what it means to perform, and is critical of love as nothing more than an act, a performance as well. Though it can be jarring when it switches from pure avant garde, to narrative, and back, the film is also most interesting when it its avante garde moments, exploring the use of camera as a voyeuristic tool, playing with the audience as voyeurs, and manipulating images of objectification. Be warned though, avant garde is not for everyone.