“Hamavdil” is a sound intervention in the West Jerusalem soundscape from a temporary tower built at the  Hansen House by the Czech architecht Martin Rainisj.
“Havdala” [Differenciation] is a ritual prayer and ceremony that marks the end of the Jewish Sabbath and the beginning of the week.
Amir Bolzman and the Sala-manca group blurred the soundscape of the neighborhoods of Talbyeh, Katamon, and the German Colony, playing a Jewish Havdalah prayer in the Arab-Jewish style. At first instance, this traditional Makam music coming from a tower using this particular type of speaker, appears to be a Muezzin. The Muslim call to prayer and the voice of the Muezzin, played with similar technology from mosques, has been the focus of a “sound conflict” in Israel and Jerusalem, with Jewish citizens complaining of the “contamination” of the soundscape and leading to the advancement of the “Muezzin Law” in the Israeli Knesset, a law that aims at restricting the scope of those prayers.
From another direction, the Arab-Jewish sound was suppressed from the Israel soundscape for ideological reason for many years.
The work challenges notions of identity and orientation regarding the local soundscape, and propose us to imagine another possible present or future.
The sound is based on Moshe Habusha’s Havdala Makam Rast from youtube.
Technical support Yoav Fisch