2007 » Israel » Architecture section

BACKSTAGE FESTIVAL TEL AVIV

The BACKSTAGE Theatre Festival is intended to take place in southern Tel-Aviv, a neighborhood called Neve Sha’anan. It is athree day festival, beginning on May 1st. The festival exposes Tel Aviv’s “stage hands” to the visitor, those who allow the rest of us to enjoy the show while remaining hidden and anonymous. The festival opens a window to places that are normally hidden behind the city’s “set”, an invisible boundary, which most people do not wish to cross, that isolates the rear neighborhoods – “Foreign Workers Land”. One of the festival’s goals is to revive the area by adding cultural centres, temporary additions and changes during the festival and by developing permanent institutions. The area, which now includes a few alternative cultural centres, will be converted into a living and action packed centres of attractions. Amongst other possibilities, the inhabitants of the area will be able to present local cultural activities, which currently take place behind closed doors and usually in front of a very small audience. During the planning process the students had to deal with many dilemmas: will the changes we implant in the neglected neighborhood elevate the quality of life, perhaps actually drive away the local population? And if so, is that a goal we wish to achieve? What is the right way for a planner to deal with the public space? Is the festival a theatrical mask, trying to hide the reality in which it takes place? Or is it perhaps the first time that the neighborhood and its residents have the chance to stand at the center of attention, on stage, in the spot light? The students developed the festival believing the city’s “backstage” will offer a stimulating environment for theatre artists and the neighborhood will benefit immensely from the visit of the public, and that it is significant for the whole population to be exposed to that side of the city, with its local inhabitants. The project was planned by fourth year students at the University of Tel-Aviv Faculty of Arts, the “David Azrieli” School of Architecture headed by Architect Hillel Schocken. The urban workshop The City as a Stage is composed of 24 students, and it is led by Architect Prof. Elinoar Barzacchi, Architect Ayala Ronel and advised by Prof. Ben Tzion Munitz from the Theatre Department. Unlike other educational workshops, our group worked as one big planning team, thus simulating “real world” planning processes. This approach is not common in universities; hence, it is regarded as experimental and innovative. This presentation will also be performed in front of representatives of Tel Aviv’s municipal authorities, in hopes of having the ideas of the piece examined further.