For the Sin

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For the Sin

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For the Sin

Shaul Dahan / For the Sin
A Sound Work for Five Speakers 

Curator: Amir Bolzman
Mamuta Art and Research Center, Hansen House

19.12.24-20.1.25

Opening event: 19.12, 19:30

The sound work “For the Sin” is based on an adaptation of the confession prayer “Ashamnu” from the Selichot liturgical cycle, and examines the mechanism of confession. Through vocal presentation and musical arrangement, the creator challenges the original religious meaning and explores the relationship between the individual and the collective, exposing the tensions between personal confession and the broader social structure.

At the center of the sound arrangement stands a single monophonic speaker, a shofar from the world of proclamation, serving as a ceremonial soloist. The shofar, bridging the worlds of ritual and technology, creates a dramatic solo line that engages in dialogue with the four additional speakers, producing a multi-layered vocal texture.

The vocal composition is accompanied by a generative electronic system, based on modular and algorithmic synthesis, which allows the composer to create a dynamic and changing sound space that reflects the complexity of the confession process. The algorithms generate sound structures that change in a semi-random manner, simulating the uncertainty and dynamics of the human confession process.

Duration: 15 minutes
Mix: Daniel Koronkevich. Lighting: Yan Bolotov. Image: Shaul Dahan, edited by Michal Arnheim

The piece is based on works from Dahan’s album “70 Faces” released on the saga.domain label in 2023, and from his work “structural neurosis” which was presented at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, supported by the Musrara School.

Shaul Dahan is a composer, sound artist, and music collector. In his works, he combines texts and prayers from the religious ritual world with analog modular synthesizers and singing inspired by cantorial traditions. His album “70 Faces”, was presented on international stages in France, Austria, and Leipzig. Shaul is a graduate of the New Music Department at Musrara and the Artistic Research Program.

The sound work is being played at the Lisbon Cinema.
Tuesday-Thursday 13:00-17:00, Friday 10:00-14:00
Closing: 20.01.25 

 The exhibition is supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Jerusalem Municipality.

About Us

The Mamuta Project is a center for artistic creation, encounters, research, and display of art. The Center, is an artist’s run space, developed and directed by the Sala-Manca Group. Mamuta is comprised of artists’ workspaces; video, sound, and electronics labs; a wood, metal, and plastics workshop. The goal of the project is to advance art projects and to create a framework for artists from different media, as well as curators, architects, designers, and researchers, who wish to create in the spirit of cooperation, dialogue, and technological innovation.

Mamuta offers guidance and support for the development of its artists’ individual projects, and initiates and produces projects at the Center as well as at other sites in and outside of Jerusalem—in cooperation with institutions and individuals in Israel and abroad. The project is dedicated to creating conditions for developing an active community of artists, allowing for personal development alongside collaborative work, through an engagement with the place and time.

A project by Sala-Manca Group (through Hearat Shulaym Foundation)

With the generous support of:

Ostrovsky Family Fund, Leichtag Foundation

From 2009 to August 2012 Mamuta project operated at El-Dan House, thanks to the kind support of Daniela Passal z”l, as a joint project by Hearat Shulaym and the Jerusalem Foundation. Since November 2013 Mamuta Center it operates at Hansen House.