Jerusalem Design Week will return in physical form to the Hansen House and will open on 1.7.2021 Under the theme “Runaway Circus”.
We escape into the virtual, into the wild, into indulgences and alternative identities and cultures. We escape ruling paradigms to alternate realities, or moments of pure pleasure. Through the span of our existence, we balance the burdens of daily life by turning our backs to it — for a day or for a lifetime, as a form of rebellion or by moving with the crowds to new and seductive diversions.
Yet increasingly, we are reminded that our escape comes at a cost. As we become aware of the social, political, ecological and cultural effects of western life, this new knowledge becomes inescapable, and our forms of escapism become tainted by the marks they leave on the world. Try as we might to ignore it, our little vacations constantly remind us of the toll they ask of us.
In its role as a festival, an escapist form in itself, Jerusalem Design Week 2021 aims to revive and explore what might seem at first glance an untainted form of escapism, at least in origins — the Festival of festivals, the hall of entertainment and wonder — the traveling Circus. A conflicted being, it is both wondrous and dangerous, inclusive and exploitative, magical and technological, wholesome and dark. It is an epitomisation of human potential, and as it disassembles, remind us of our inability to fulfil it. it shows us the wonders of the world and nature, while it resonates the costs of bringing it to us. The Circus is a place where the purest escapism and harshest realities meet.
Through its one week of existence, “Runaway Circus” will explore the Escapism’s bright facade and dark backstage, and might seem to offer us a moment of ease of mind, as design also often does. But it just might also remind us that reality is inescapable, and that whatever we do is always a reflection of what we are.
About Jerusalem Design Week
The Jerusalem Design Week has been held under the mangment of the Hansen House Center for Design, Media and Technology since 2011. Hansen House hosts a spectrum of diverse activities throughout the year to promote the design sector in Jerusalem and Israeli designers in general. Jerusalem Design Week is the main event in the tapestry of Hansen House’s annual activities and constitutes its flagship project, as the largest and most influential public design event in Israel. In 2016, the Jerusalem Design Week expanded and became an international event that takes place in several locations throughout Jerusalem, and offers a multitude of events, performances and local and international design exhibitions. Each year, the Jerusalem Design Week focuses on a central theme that examines unique Jerusalem and Israeli situations having international relevance, with the idea that the unique cultural landscape in Israel allows it to serve as a kind of living laboratory exploring urgent global issues, and with the belief that design must respond to these issues. The Jerusalem Design Week is an initiative of the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage Affairs and the Jerusalem Development Authority and is being managed by the Ran Wolf Company.
Title
Jerusalem Design WeekType
Festival / BiennialOrganizers
From
July 01, 2021 05:00 PMUntil
July 08, 2021 08:00 PMVenue
Hansen HouseAddress