Can art breach boundaries? Segregation and hierarchy at a fringe theatre festival in the Israeli mixed city of Acre

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between art and urban boundaries using the case study of a fringe theatre festival in the Israeli mixed-city of Acre. While mixed cities today are understood as agglomerations of enclaves, maintained and reinforced by boundaries, urban designers and artists have used art as a culture-led regeneration strategy through which these boundaries may be breached. This study undermines the shared assumption of both fields: that art has the power to breach boundaries, by juxtaposing a city’s artistic activity with its segregation patterns and boundaries. Using super-positioning, the findings of two research methods have been integrated: urban research and ethnographic field work. The article shows that although the artistic activity in question is rooted in an avant-garde radical desire to subvert socioeconomic structures, it actually produces new versions and interpretations of the same segregations and boundaries in both space and society.

Notes

1. The term ‘mixed city’ has been used in scholarly literature to describe a situation in which Arab and Jewish communities share a single urban jurisdiction. It is a parallel discourse to that of contested cities, but one that is more local in focus. This study’s analysis of Acre as a mixed city is partially based on studies such as Rabinowitz and Monterescu (2007) and Yacobi (2009) which have made significant contributions to understandings of the mixed city in Israel. However, it also makes its own contribution to the continually evolving discourse.

2. Israel’s population, including that of Acre, is divided into religious and national categories. From the perspective of religious identification, it consists of Muslims, Christians and Jews, and from a national perspective, it can be broken down into Israelis and Palestinians. Most Jews consider themselves to be Israelis and most Muslims and Christians consider themselves to be Palestinians. The definitions and distinctions between national and religious affiliation in Israel are sensitive and somewhat complex. For the sake of clarity, this paper divides the population of Acre into two groups: the general term ‘Arabs’ will be used to refer to a group that comprises mostly Muslims and Christians who sometimes prefer to be referred to as Palestinians, whereas the term ‘Jews’ will be used to refer to Israeli Jews.

3. According to the 2014 census, Acre’s peripheral and socio-economic indexes are 4 out of 10.

4. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1042.

5. Considering the time period and the number of shows, the Figure also indicates that there were some exceptions in which shows took place outside the clusters.