24 ARTS&ENTERTAINMENTMONDAY, MAY 21, 2012 THE JERUSALEM POST Beneath the surface ‘HORSE’ (Adi Nes) his own life experiences growing up as a gay that group, to resemble a real chorus. In youth on the periphery of Israeli society. another Village photo, a male soldier In all of his projects the viewer can see the appears overcome with emotion. That was issues of Israeli, Jewish, racial and sexual no act, Nes says. identity that Nes is working through. Dur- “He got into this moment when I worked ing his youth, Nes recalls feeling different with him.” from his peers and trying to hide his cultur- In response to claims that the Soldiers series al identity. At the same time, he yearned to is quite homoerotic, Nes agrees, but says that be part of the group, was active in the Zion- homoeroticism exists in every place in which ist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair and men are together, including the army, sports ‘CHORUS’ (Adi Nes) admired kibbutz laborers. and in the street, and everyone will under- In the Soldiers series, the viewer feels the stand what he wants to from the same image. same tension between public life and private “I’m not a provocative or controversial Photographer Adi Nes reveals underlying life, as some soldiers are shot alone, while person,” he says. “I’m trying to express many are shot in hearty communal scenes. myself... it’s presented in a way that you village tensions in the Jezreel Valley “In many cases you feel the tension will find empathy or you will recognize between these two parts of my personality the identity of the other and then you will • By RACHEL MARDER “Behind the surface the atmosphere is in my art,” he says. “On the one hand you recognize the identity of yourself. What is very charged,” says Nes in a phone inter- feel part of the group, the nation, the narra- the basis of a strong nation if not to rec- sraeli photographer Adi Nes, who view with The Jerusalem Post ahead of the tive, the dream, but on the other hand you ognize ourselves and our neighbors? It famously turned Leonardo da Vinci’s shows’ opening. “The village maybe tells can criticize it.” starts from there.” The Last Supper into a scene in an army the story of Israel today.” You can admire the soldier or the kib- A print of Last Supper (1999), part of the mess hall, has returned with a new body In one shot, a few young men negotiate butznik, but criticize him at the same time. Soldiers series which is hanging in the Israel Iof work, shot in the Jezreel Valley and called about a goat with an older man whose “When I went to the army suddenly I felt Museum in Jerusalem, sold at auction at The Village, showing in three simultaneous hands are raised in despair, which Nes, who that I was proud,” Nes says. “For me, the Sotheby’s for $102,000 in 2005, and anoth- exhibits in Tel Aviv, Paris and New York was born in 1966 to Iranian immigrants and Israeli army was still the big melting pot of er for $264,000 in 2007. starting this month. raised in Kiryat Gat, a development town in the Israeli society, like it was called in those His decision to use the soldier as a pro- The project includes images of kibbutz the Negev, says represents the next genera- days. I felt very proud to serve in the army, tagonist came out of his desire to explore members working the land, dramatic tion on the kibbutz selling away their prop- to find a place in the group.” the central place of the army in Israeli moments in the life of a family, a young erty as their social environment crumbles Nes, known for generally working with identity, and also out of his disturbance at man, alone, with a horse and a choir singing around them. real people (he seldom uses professional the time that people had forgotten those together. The colors are rural, light and dark, Nes, who recently moved from Jaffo to the models or actors) in staged scenes, or digi- killed during the Lebanon War, which the scenes Biblical and echoing of a Greek Jezreel Valley with his partner and four chil- tally manipulating his images, traces in the began when Nes was 18. tragedy, all against the backdrop of the labor dren, photographed in different villages and Soldiers series the universal Israeli experi- “I wanted to bring them back to the front Zionist vision. Nes intentionally made the kibbutzim, sometimes indoors and some- ences in the army, the feelings of closeness of the stage,” he says. “I wanted them to be time period ambiguous and environment times in familiar outdoor areas to capture and group unity, showing soldiers sleeping the heroes of my cultural project.” dreamlike. the well-known orchards and landscape for together and napping alone, urinating out- In the Boys series, Nes drew from child- Photographs like the one of the boy stand which the valley where the Israelites fought doors and in battle. He also explores mean- hood, a time when he recalls questioning in contrast to photographs of the collective, the Philistines is known. ings behind Israeli masculinity, as the buff, his identity. and express an underlying tension between He began researching for the project five tan soldiers show off their muscles, rough- “I think my art is composed of all the lay- public and private life on the kibbutz, years ago, soon after he wrapped his series house in the water and wrestle. ers that exist in my personality. In my per- between individual dreams and communal “Biblical stories” (2003-2006). His other crit- He says the benefit of working with real sonality they can live in peace and I think in dreams, conforming and standing out, and ically acclaimed series are of marginalized people is his ability to capture genuine emo- my art also.” open and closed spaces. Still, all seems idyl- ‘I’M NOT a provocative or controversial populations: mainly Sephardi soldiers (1994- tion and authenticity. The chorus photo in ‘The Village’ is running at the Gallery Praz lic, the sky is bright blue and the land is person... I think my art is composed of all 2000), Sephardi boys (2000) and prisoners the Village was staged after Nes took the Delavallade in Paris, the Jack Shainman green and white. But passion and secrets the layers that exist in my personality,’ says (2003). Nes takes classic scenes from art his- portrait of another group of people singing Gallery in New York and the Sommer Contem- lurk underground. Adi Nes. (Ziv Koren) tory and the Bible and combines them with together and staged his models to resemble porary Art in Tel Aviv from May 31-July 28. CLASSICAL REVIEW A final farewell to the Queen of Disco • By URY EPPSTEIN An icon of dance music, Donna Summer left IPO Popular Romantics an enduring legacy that helped open the way Jerusalem Theater, May 18 to techno and house music t was a super-popular Romantic • By AUGUST BROWN Summer sang in a psychedelic rock band called Iprogram that the Israel Philhar- Crow in the late 1960s. She left home for New monic Orchestra presented at n 1975, Donna Summer released a pop York City at 18 and quickly landed a role in a the matinee concert last week – single unlike any before it. The singer, touring production of the Broadway show Hair. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade Ithen an unknown in the US, was living in She spent the next three years living and tour- and Rodrigo’s Aranjuez Guitar Germany and working with Italian producer ing in Europe. While there she met and married Concerto. Giorgio Moroder and lyricist Pete Bellotte. singer Helmuth Sommer, and took a variation Such a program of often- Together they came up with a breathy, mini- of his last name as her stage name. In Europe heard works can be welcome if malist number that sounded flagrantly sexy. she also met Moroder, whose early dance tracks the performance is extraordi- Summer’s coos acted as musical erotica atop a were making an impact there. nary. This was indeed the case simple, four-on-the-floor drum beat. “Love to “Love to Love You Baby” was their first hit with Sheherazade. The masterful Love You Baby,” all 17 minutes of it, set a tem- together. A shortened version of it that was conducting of the American plate that would ignite Summer’s career, and a released in 1975 by Casablanca, then a hot Ryan McAdams impressively style that defined an era: disco. label, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard sin- highlighted the work’s abundant She became the face and voice of one of the gles chart. tone colors, produced flexible, most powerful music and cultural movements “Those groans and moans were the hardest fresh-sounding tempi that had in America. As a disco icon, she projected an things I ever had to record,” she told The Times nothing mechanical about empowering African American femininity that in 1976. “At first I couldn’t play the song at them, never leaving a dull moment, and created immense would influence artists from Grace Jones to Bey- home because I couldn’t cope with hearing dramatic tension. Moreover, the once and Rihanna, and help make her a figure- myself groan. It made me very uneasy that I was orchestra sounded well-coordi- head of gay club life. As an artist, her music was making something public out of feelings and AS A disco icon, Donna Summer projected an empowering African American femininity that would influence artists from Grace Jones to Beyonce and Rihanna.