Within this program, MART supported a hip-hop singer, Neta Weiner, one of the most influential online creators in Israel, Corinne Kitzis, and Semyon Alexandrovsky, an Israeli-born Russian director.

The Israel Festival took upon itself to provide a platform for artists who are at a point in their career where they have gained considerable experience, and developed a personal artistic language, but find themselves limited in the face of meagre room for growth. The festival gives participating artists a much needed spotlight on a prestigious national and international stage.

One of the more innovative voices in the contemporary arena is Neta Weiner. His creative path began in a youth shelter in Jaffa, where he found himself mixing between a variety of languages and styles: Arabic, Amharic, Russian, English, Yiddish and Hebrew interwoven as one. Together with his friends, Neta founded System Ali, the first multilingual hip hop group in Israel. They rap about the things that make up their lives: identity, love, nationality, wars and hopes, and have performed on many stages in Israel and around the world. 

Over the years, Neta's career developed into two solo albums, a notable acting career, and as a talented composer for series and films. He comes to the festival with a multilingual spoken word / hip-hop performance (Hebrew-Arabic-English-Yiddish) that deals with Jaffa in its physical expression — as a mixed city, with 5,000 years of history — and in its metaphysical expression, as the mother of all mothers. During the piece, the performers switch between languages and move between the personal and the national.

Corinne is one of the most influential online creators in Israel. With many followers, Corinne conveys important, intriguing messages about feminism, self-image, femininity and strength. Over the years, she’s been blamed for being ‘too strong’— reflecting the difficulties of society to witness a talented woman, with a sharp mind who practices judo and has the ability to win many fights. 

Her new piece is about her (physical) strength and the various struggles and battles she has had in life. It is a play in three acts, divided into three battles. These battles take place centre-stage, on a large judo mat on which Corinne fights — the first with her friend, and the father of her three children, the second with her mother, and the third against herself. With extraordinary honesty and inexhaustible talent, Corinne unfolds her life story in front of the audience, who will recognise themselves in these meaningful moments.

In last year’s programme, we held an event dedicated entirely to refugee artists from Ukraine and Russia. It was through this event that we came to know Semyon, an Israeli-born Russian director with an extraordinary, unique performative language. 

This year we are proud to showcase Short Term, which deals with the complex issue of memory loss. An immersive experience, the piece meets the viewers as a normal theatre production, and as the show progresses, the audience is invited to come on stage where they are introduced to the moving stories of fathers and their sons or daughters, while discovering their personal belongings. The show offers a deep reflection on the elusive concept of memory.