Chris Cornell, the former lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, once said in an interview that the name for their band's biggest hit, Black Hole Sun, came from a radio presenter who used the expression in a different context. It took him just a quarter of an hour to translate this feeling into a song, which has since become one of the biggest rock anthems of the 90s.  In our case, it was Karen, our deputy director, who is crazy about our podcasts, who came up with a name after hearing the expression, Art of Our Times, in a Portal podcast hosted by Eric Weinstein.  This new concept embraced thought and artistic processes, which were in motion before its introduction. Suddenly, our attempts to pinpoint the art of this time and place became a definitive task. We set out to understand and express the art of our times.

Every Wednesday, throughout the summer, we invited dozens of multidisciplinary creators and artists to create new, site-specific artworks, rethink the role of a stage and bring audiences and artists together to learn, be and create. The meetings on the lawns and pathways of Jerusalem's Gabriel Sherover promenade transcended the boundaries of language and time while enabling in-depth processes led by the FeelBeit ensemble, a talented and daring musical lineup created by our musical director, Itamar Doari. The ensemble met once a week to listen, learn and play the melody of here and now, hosted a guest artist, deepened and enriched its unique musical perspective and tailored every note to the space in a never-to-be-repeated musical experience.

The summer turned into an open, dynamic laboratory with a unique rhythm. Its original intention morphed into an artistic space; the space created an opening for deep listening; the deep listening generated ideas and sounded voices; ideas and voices combined to create a new work model, and the model produced a completely new experience. 

The summer is over now, and we are happy to say that we don’t have all the answers. We cannot define the art of our times, but we are in the depths of a soulful search, which many thousands have joined. The podcast series, which we created and you can listen to here, opens up and expands our original question. In the five-part series, leading figures from the world of art and culture from diverse genres and disciplines, fine-tune questions, point to trends, shine a light on additional points for discussion and offer fascinating and varied answers. Their insights are weaved together, relate to one another, and in some cases, contradictory. We invite you to join us in this space, which is hosting and generating this multi-dialogue.

Happy listening!

To listen to all the podcast platforms, click here.

Participants (alphabetically): Moran Aviv Dvir, Yair Assulin, Maya Buenos. Milana Gitzin-Adiram, Assaf Granit, Emmanuel Witzthum, Dr. Lior Zalmanson, Dr. Maya Tevet Dayan, Ofri Cnaani, Jasmin Moallem, Ohad Milstein, Ohad Naharin, Porat Salomon, Yehudit Shlosberg- Yogev

Gil Rouvio: Production Manager and Broadcaster

Rony Ohad: Producer

Saar Gamzo: Editor and Presenter