The Culture Club

The Culture Club by Picnic Magazine, Tel Aviv is a multi-sensory environment that will allow visitors to experience sparks of Israel's creative essence through its hot-spot, Tel Aviv—all brought to life in a layered manner that blends various elements, including: food, film, a pop-up shop, architecture and music. It is a snapshot of cultural life in Israel that reflects its vibrant, creative soul; a celebration of pleasure through the senses that showcases the art of joy in a place typically characterized by politics and religion. The Culture Club will be a four-day pop-up experience that will unfold in Miami during Art Basel this year that aims to showcase the dynamic and creative spirit of Israel. The Club will open in a 12,000 square foot loft in the iconic Buena Vista Building at 180 NE 39th street, suite 200, in Miami’s Design District. The special VIP opening will take place on Thursday, Dec 1 at 4:00 pm (ongoing until midnight), and will kick off with a discussion led by the program curators and publishers of Picnic Magazine. Our special guest speaker is Michael Arad, the architect of the new World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial.

The Culture Club / ARCHITECTURE

Interior environments by the legendary, Dani Karavan, whose work spans architecture, art, stage design and landscape design, is recognized worldwide as iconic and monumental. He is a humanist, a universalist, and a pro-peace maestro, with whom we are honored to work. Mr. Karavan was born in Tel Aviv in 1930, and today works and resides in Tel Aviv and Paris. He is a landmark figure in the history of Israel's creative narrative, and it is an absolute honor for us to showcase his talent and work.

The Culture Club / FOOD

Flavors, tastes, spices and savories by Joz ve Loz chef, Noa Levy.

In 1998, Orit Revivo and Alma Fogiel met in Jerusalem and created the “Marakkiya” (The Soup Joint), a small and intimate place where patrons sat around one long wooden table and exchanged opinions. The place soon turned into a central arena for artists and performers. In 2004 they moved to Tel Aviv, their second capital, and chose to set their private world in a discrete back yard.

Noa Levy was born in the desert town of Ofakim and grew up in Eilat. She has spent many years working in restaurants, until, at the age of 26, she went into professional cooking school in Eilat. Since then she has worked in restaurants, acquiring her present status of chef through hard work and enormous talent. Noa uses classic notions of various cuisines found in Israel of the 2000s. With an original sense of materials she succeeds in creating a personal, feminine and accessible cuisine that revives the senses, comprising opposites that meld into a wholesome experience of tastes and textures.

Delicacies are served on ceramic dishes especially made and designed by Rachel Elimelech Urbach. Exploiting the border between design, craft, and art, Rachel has been working with clay for 25 years. She studied in The School of Art at Beit Berl College and practices at many workshops and ateliers in Israel and abroad. She believes working with clay represents an attempt to speak the language of objects: their shape, their vitality and the fact that they are fossils of life.

The Culture Club / MUSIC

Sonic explorations and auditory pleasures by the Israeli group called We Are Ghosts, which is essentially a spontaneous music project that brings together musicians to create a one-time adventurous encounter that cannot be reconstructed. Their Guiding principle is documenting improvisational sessions without rules or genre restrictions; and Dor Zipori, the ever magical and always enchanting DJ songbird of Tel Aviv.

The Culture Club / FILM

The Culture Club films will include screenings of “Children of the Sun” (2007) / dir. Ran Tal; “Fabric Stories: Fashion from Israel,” (1978) / dir. Amos Gutman; and the Academy Award winner for best documentary in 2010, “Strangers no More” (2010) / dir. Karen Goodman. Additional moving images by Anat Ben David, Ohad Fishof, Dana Haim, Nir Evron and Dani Karavan.

The Culture Club / SCULPTURE

Shapes and dimensions by Freddy Kislev and a debut sculpture by Dani Karavan.

The Culture Club / POP-UP BOUTIQUE

Textural and intellectual delights to admire or purchase, featuring one-of-a-kind fashion pieces by the talented Liora Taragan, as well as art and architecture books, magazines, music, and films provided by Tel Aviv’s cultural media mecca, Ha Ozen HaShlishit (The Third Ear). Also featuring four posters curated by Picnic Magazine

The Culture Club / HOST

Character, sass, charisma and Middle Eastern greetings by Tel Aviv’s consummate host and personality—the unforgettable Sami Zeibak.

The Culture Club / ABOUT US

Picnic Magazine מגזין פיקניק (est. 2007) is a 100% image based magazine edited printed and published in Tel Aviv and distributed in selected libraries, books and magazine stores, boutiques and museum stores worldwide.

Each volume is different in shape, format, content and design, and presenting various wondrous visions and views from new uprising and carefully selected creators from around the universe.

Fashion, architecture, hobbies, photography, cinema, photoshop, pretty boys, pretty girls, astronomy, crazy dance, confectionery, bird watching, contemporary archeology, private collections, cosmic 3D renderings and much more...

Picnic magazine is a visual guide to your new reality, a highly inspiring envisioning magazine coming from the land of milk and honey (Adi Englman and Meir Kordevani, publishers and editors).

Monica Haim is a writer, director & producer who grew up in Miami, and lived in New York for 15 years. Today, she splits her time between Tel Aviv, Miami and Brooklyn, and works as a freelance writer and documentary filmmaker. As a writer she has collaborated with personalities such as Ilyasah Shabazz, Ricky Martin, Jorge & Laura Posada, Thalia, Nina Garcia and David Archuleta, with whom she wrote a New York Times best seller.

Monica was also a four-time producer of Mystery Diagnosis, an award-winning medical documentary series on Discovery Health. She was a writer and field producer for Edible Adventures, a Travel Channel pilot about organic food and sustainable agriculture in Costa Rica. As a professional ghostwriter, Monica has been published by HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Chronicle Books. In 2001 Monica was also published in an anthology, 9/11 8:48am: Documenting America's Worst Tragedy (Blue Ear Press, 2001), and her essay was adapted for the London theatrical premiere, Voices from September 11th, which ran at the Old Vic on September 11th, 2002.

Monica is also the writer, producer, and director of the independent documentary, Awake Zion, which explores the little-known relationship between Rastafari and Judaism and is due out in 2012.

The Culture Club / LINKS

Curators and Designers, Picnic Magazine
picnicmagazine.net

Producer, Monica Haim
awakezion.net

Dani Karavan
danikaravan.com

★

We Are Ghosts
we.areghosts.com

Dor Zipori
soundcloud.com/dorzip

Voiceoverhead (Dani Gal and Achim Lengerer)
The Ballot or the Bullet, ongoing (2009)
http://www.anthropologyofsound.info/2008/05/03/dani-gal-achim-lengerer-voiceoverhead-4th-of-may-2008/

★

Liora Taragan
http://liorataragan.com

★

Ami Shavit
http://gallery.me.com/amichai

Erez Tom High
http://ereztomhigh.blogspot.com

Anne de Vries
http://www.annedevries.info

Rachel de Joode
http://www.racheldejoode.com

Josch Hambsch
http://hub.webring.org/hub/ccd_astro

Stacy Greene
http://www.stacygreene.com/lipstick.html

Ilia Shalamaev
http://www.FocusWildlife.com

★

Ami Shavit
In Alpha Mood, 1977
http://gallery.me.com/amichai

Voiceoverhead (Dani Gal and Achim Lengerer)
The Ballot or the Bullet, ongoing (2009)
http://www.freymondguth.com/DGal.html

★

Anat Ben David
Light Heads, 2008, 2:17 min, looped
http://www.yippieyeah.co.uk/anat

Ohad Fishof
One More Song, in collaboration with Noa Zuk, 2008, 3:55 min, looped
http://ohadfishof.com

Dana Haim
A Braided Beaded Balls Suit , in collaboration with Learke Hooge Andersen, 2008, 3:34 min, looped
http://www.danahaim.com

Nir Evron
In Virgin Land, 2006, 12:00 min, looped
http://www.nirevron.com

Dani Karavan
Negev Monument, video documentary, 6:12 min, looped
http://www.danikaravan.com

Freddy Kislev
youtube.com/sfkislev

★

Projected Films by:

Ran Tal
Children of the Sun, 2007, 70 min, English Subtitles

Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon
Strangers No More, 2010, 40 min, English Subtitles
http://www.strangersnomoremovie.com

Amos Gutman
Fabric Stories: Fashion from Israel, 1978, 40 min, Hebrew, No Subtitles

★

And with the participation of:

Machol Magazine
Monti Fiori
http://montifiori.bandcamp.com

Third-ear (Ha-Ozen Ha-Shlishit)
http://www.third-ear.com

★

Keynote speaker:
Architect, Michael Arad
http://www.handelarchitects.com/people/partners/michael-arad.html

★

The Culture Club logo by:
Toony Navok
http://www.toonynavok.com/toony/index.php?/home

Video clip by:
Tal Amitai

Website:
Doodle + Code
http://www.doodleandcode.com

Webpage Designer:
Dana Haim
http://www.danahaim.com

The Culture Club / SPONSORS

This experience has been made possible by the generosity of a most special anonymous donor.

Endless gratitude also goes to:
Craig Robins and Dacra
Alex and Olga Blavatnik
Urban Art
Raquel and Aryeh Rubin
Caren Sredni
Natalie and Alan Strauss
Fanny and David Haim

Culture Club Tel-Aviv / The Buena Vista Building / Miami Design District
180 NE 39th Street, Suite 200, Miami, FL 33137 (see map)

Site by Doodle + Code