Ever since last year, I’ve been waiting excitedly for the now annual Jerusalem Light Festival. The event brings world-class international light artists to Israel’s capital to situate their magnificent light installations along the streets and alleyways of the Old City.
Last year’s light creations were so fabulous, I thought it could get only better. I was wrong, unfortunately.
In 2010, Zedekiah’s Cave (also known as Solomon’s Quarries), near Damascus Gate, was transformed into an underwater masterpiece, with eerie lighting and the sounds of the sea. The cave itself, which dates back to the time of Herod the Great, stretches 5 city blocks culminating in a vast 300-foot long auditorium-lie chamber.
This year’s exhibition in the cave was interesting – a set of 40 Bwindi masks from the border area between Congo and Uganda, lit up in different colors to a pulsating “bi-vocal” African soundtrack – but it was disappointing compared to the 2020 show.
The program also promised a “red and blue market celebration” along the trail that led through the Muslim Quarter. Instead, it was just a long line of red lights leading through a mostly deserted marketplace with some bored teenagers and a lot of Israeli soldiers.
I shouldn’t be so harsh – there were a few cool installations, especially the “fairy tale” images projected onto Damascus Gate, turning the ancient stones into a three dimensional medley of dragons and marionettes.
But that had to be balanced by the Hurva exhibit – last year, a film chronicling the history of the Jewish quarter projected on the recently restored walls of the massive synagogue. This year, it was a rather subdued installation featuring strands of light, changing colors, set to some sort of vaguely familiar new age music.
Overall, it also seemed like attendance was much lower, but this was only the first night; maybe it will pick up.
The real show, however, was not in the alleys of the Old City, but above it. A total lunar eclipse, the longest in 100 years, and culminating at 10:22 PM, had festival goers fascinated by the wonders of nature above much more than the artistic creations of men and women below.
The light show continues for a week. The eclipse, unfortunately, was a one-hour affair.
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