Inspired, Al-Quds fest goes underground

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- "We go to really private spaces, to people who have sometimes experienced rough things," Al-Quds Underground Festival organizer Merlijn Twaalfoven said ahead of the launch of the event's second year.

On the bill for a select number of guests - word of mouth and invitation only - were joint performances between British, Dutch and Palestinian artists, displayed in secret locations accessed by underground passages and tall stairs via guides working with the project.

Over three nights, 150 small performances will take place in living rooms and public spaces, some of which were shut down by Israeli officials in the wake of a hot contest for cultural expression in Jerusalem during the 2009 ALESCO-declared year of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as the year's Capital of Arab Culture.

"Last year was our first edition as a response to that reality," Twaalfoven explained, referencing the inability of Jerusalem organizations to celebrate the city's Palestinian history and culture.

Shortly after 2000, Israel declared Palestinian Authority activities in Jerusalem illegal. It had previously closed down Orient House, the diplomatic center for officials in the city, and when artists came to plan the 2009 events, Israeli forces closed down planning sessions, cultural activities and balloon launches. The official opening events of the year were held three months late in Bethlehem.

One of the highlights of the underground festival for the intrepid young audience, was a visit to Hamam Al-Ayn. The location was shut down in the wake of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, halting more than 700 years of continuous use since its construction by the Mamluks.

The facility fell into disrepair and an initiative by the Center for Jerusalem Studies, which helped host the underground festival, sought to open the bath in January 2009 to celebrate Jerusalem's history. Permits were sought, some were granted, but work was forcibly halted on the location by Israeli forces in the lead-up to the festival.

Amidst the scaffolding of the halted renovations, a Palestinian oud player and British baratone serenaded a small group of young Jerusalemites, invited by friends and family to participate in the festival.

"They're opening it illegally, so the Israelis could shut it down tomorrow," the event's spokeswoman commented.

Overlooking Al-Aqsa

Another highlight, hosted by the head of the Uzbek community in Jerusalem Sheikh Abdul Azizi Buchari, saw Al-Aqsa Muezzan Sheikh Sa’ed Abbasi, whose voice rings out the call to prayer from the preeminent Old City mosque, and Dutch throat singing-specialist Mark van Tongeren.

"To live so close to Al-Aqsa Mosque, it means you are in the center of where things happen," organizer Twaalfoven said of the impetus behind hosting events in the heart of the Old City, and incorporating guests who have often been at the heart of conflict.

The secrecy of the event also prompted some to participate, where they would otherwise decline. "Its private, we go to their living rooms, to their bedrooms even, that's why we need to invite just small groups," Twaalfoven said.

Audience members for the 2010 festival were also drawn exclusively from the Palestinian community in and around East Jerusalem. "Its easy to just ask the people who usually go to concerts such as this, people with a western spirit or internationals; they can come easily. But to get people from here, especially young people, its a challenge."

PILARA, a youth group in the city partnered with Twaalfoven, offers young leaders as guides between the secret destinations and asks them to invite friends, family and classmates to register for the performance tours.

While other event organizers from theater to cinema to art showings have observed that the irregularity of cultural events in the Old City, the inability to widely advertise festivals and the prohibition on official Palestinian governmental involvement have meant scant audiences and more expats than Palestinians, the underground festival sought to buck the trend.

The young men and women, the first of three nights-worth of guests, trekked inconspicuously through the Old City streets. "We had to go underground because it is so important [to recognize] that culture is there, that we celebrate richness and expression. Its hard in a situation of occupation," Twaalfoven said of the decision to keep the festival an invitation only event.

"I wish everyone could go, people from other countries, to see what the real life was like in the old city. For now we have 150 shows in three days, small shows, but we are at our limit for now.

"But its also a good thing that it is small. There are many things that people in Jerusalem believe that are very big, like the end of times or something, even world peace is supposed to start here, all big things. We will talk about small things in private situations," he said.

The only internationals at the events were the artists, who worked alongside their Palestinian counterparts in advance to set out the program, and brainstorm the best shows for the venues that organizers had collected.

That cooperation between artists and Palestinians was part of the larger significance of the project for Twaalfoven. "Its like a dialogue between cultures. People in western Europe expect that you are supposed to hold dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, and I tell them, 'look, first we must make a dialogue between the west and people here so we can really understand what's going on here.' Its so important that our concepts of life and peace be based on real contact with local people."

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=331032.