The Shofar School, 2020

Made from a ram's horn, the Shofar is an instrument played in different moments of the Jewish calendar by a person of high esteem in their communities. Its call is said to open up the sky. Although women are not prohibited from playing the Shofar, it is an honor reserved for men. With the Shofar School, Bartana creates an online platform to collectively learn to blow the Shofar regardless of gender or religious affiliation. For one month in the fall of 2020, a group of people based in different regions of the world in their home or out in the street – simultaneously blow the horn. The Shofar School takes place in parallel with a performance that Bartana orchestrates at the Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden, where a woman plays the Shofar from the rooftop of the exhibition hall.

Project by: Yael Bartana
Participants: Annie Albagli, Harry Dukker, Thomas Lunderquist, Yarden Stern, Jeannine Dath, Gabriel Nahoum, Nikolay Karabinovych, Arthur Hirsch, David Bernstein, Solange Akierman, Katja Petrowskaja, Elisabeth Belisário
Shofar teacher: Miriam Camerini
Respondents: Wanda Nanibush, Banjamin Seroussi

A project initiated and coproduced by Kunstenfestivaldesarts in the frame of The Diasporic Schools In collaboration with: Casa do Povo.