The Last Dance

performance
Ilay den Boer made a series of performances about Israel under the title Het Beloofde Feest (The Promised Party). In each performance, he critically looks from the perspective of one of his family members at his native country of Israel. But the promised party is never celebrated. That’s why, as the final piece of the series, Ilay makes his own party: his wedding party. We dance, drink, and toast “to a new beginning,” but gradually the party derails and turns into a nightmare.

design
The large paper wedding tent (“choepa”) runs through the hall all the way to the risers. The audience sits in and around the tent as guests at the wedding party. At the end, everyone is invited into the tent, which is then closed. The light in the tent goes out, and lights outside the tent are turned on, illuminating the roof and walls. At that moment, it turns out they have been completely painted and scribbled with small illustrations and text fragments. Wood charcoal, East India ink, marker pens, and spray paint cover the canvas as if someone had manically recorded his subconscious. The wild black & white images that swirl through each other address the complex reality of Israel, inseparable from the “the promised party” that never arrived.