El: The Field Named After Edna Mushenzon

November 12–14, 2026

Admission is free

The 2026 edition of “El: HaSadeh” — a festival of music, performance, visual art, and discourse at the Center for Contemporary Art — will focus on time machines.

Inspired by the words of the late artist Uri Katzenstein in his work Hope Machines — “It is unclear whether this world is after or before. Whether it is in a state of pre-creation, or in a state of post-apocalypse” — the festival will move within the sense of rupture surrounding the present moment, and invite us to consider the human being as a strange and fragile time machine, as well as the devices and mechanisms they create in an attempt to expand their existence.

The festival will center on works that operate with and against time — performances and actions that play with time, linger, stretch and restrict it, and lead us forward and backward. All of these will come together under a performative concept grounded in live action: gathering and being present together in the present moment.

The festival, now named after curator Edna Moshenson and dedicated to her memory, returns for three days of performances, actions, and encounters.

Festival Program

Throughout the three days of the festival

Artworks that embody and capture a moment in time, alongside new performative works. Participants include Mila Levy, Oz Malul, Naama Arad, Dariusz Podczuk, and Uri Katzenstein. Space design: Eran Shani and VJ VAJJ.

[Location: throughout the center]

Thursday, November 12, 19:00–23:30

19:00 — Frequency Calibration: a drone-playing action throughout the center. The audience is invited to bring musical instruments.

20:00–21:00 — An exhibition match of “Easy Football,” accompanied by supporters’ songs performed by the Power Strangers, and the launch of the fanzine Why Did I Stop Playing Football?, based on interviews with the team’s players.

Participants: “Easy Football” players
Fanzine editors: Or Rimer, Rafi Balbirsky, and Shani Poker
Design and printing: Alex Sasportas
The Power Strangers: Mia Landsman and Or Rimer

[At the football field adjacent to the center]

20:00–23:00 — Screening of a selection of video works, curated by Luma Abu-Warda.

[In the auditorium]

20:15–21:00 — Tarot Opener: Eitan Ben Moshe with questions for this moment.

[HaBartana — 1st floor]

21:00–23:00 — Music performances curated by Kim Kartas. Participants: Electric C, Itzik Gil Avizohar.

[Ground floor]

DJ set: Hillel David Grinold.

[HaBartana — 1st floor]

Friday, November 13, 11:00–15:00

11:00–12:15 + 13:00–14:15 — The Thing I’m Looking At: Time Machines: two sessions of a performative discourse format developed at the center, in which artists and thinkers share the subject at the center of their thoughts.

Participants: Shimon Adaf, Shira Ben-Uriel, Uri Drumer, Nurit Drimer, Dr. Carmel Vaisman, Hadas Set, Ohad Fishof, San Franco, and Ruth Patir.

Curated by Tal Yehez.

[In the auditorium]

13:00–14:00 — The Pharmacist: Naama Stern-Licht speaks and pours a local tonic she makes. There will also be gin.

[HaBartana — 1st floor]

14:00 — Field Cooking: a group of Israeli and Polish artists prepares a workers’ meal as part of a joint project tracing the strange entity of the potato.

Participants: Talia Hoffman, Ron Asulin, Michal Samama, Eitan Ben Moshe, Jacek Sosnowski, Maniucha Bikont, and Dariusz Podczuk.

Curated by Kinneret Haya Max and Hila Cohen-Schneider.

[In the center plaza]

Saturday, November 14, 11:00–22:00

11:00 — For children: Cyanotype workshop, led by Shiran Yitzhari (ages 6+).

How do we see time? A hands-on workshop exploring cyanotype (sun printing), an early photographic technique that makes it possible to create images using sunlight. We will create blue-toned prints and discover how light, shadow, and exposure time affect the resulting image.

[In the auditorium]

14:00–20:00 — Screening of a selection of video works, curated by Luma Abu-Warda.

[In the auditorium]

14:00–22:00 — Music performances. Michal Goldstein and Sima Gutman, Maniucha Bikont and Asaf Talmudi, Ayala Shamir, Adam Avishai, Nico Tin, Ketamine, and Between the Ruins. Curated by Kim Kartas.

[Ground floor]

Admission is free and recommended!

Artistic direction:

Hila Cohen-Schneider, Kim Kartas, Tal Yehez, Yael Messer, and Luma Abu-Warda

Technical management: Kim Kartas and Ido Mandil

With the support of the Polish Institute

Edna Moshenson

The “El: HaSadeh” festival is dedicated to the memory of curator Edna Moshenson (1945–2026), who worked for nearly five decades on behalf of Israel’s art field, with her love for art and artists serving as her guiding light.

For approximately thirty years, Moshenson was a central figure at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, where she headed the Department of Drawing and Printmaking and helped expand artistic discourse and expose local audiences to new forms of expression in contemporary art, including video and installation. Over the years, she curated exhibitions by artists from Israel and around the world, including Bill Viola, William Kentridge, Kara Walker, Elaine Reichek, and Chantal Akerman, and was committed to creating an ongoing encounter between art in Israel and developments around the world.

As an independent curator, Moshenson continued to work across a wide range of fields, from video art and installation to drawing and art in public space. Among the prominent projects she curated were Circus Universalis Ltd., as part of the events marking Tel Aviv’s centenary (2009); Efrat Shvili’s retrospective exhibition at the Ein Harod Museum of Art (2013); and the Sixth Jerusalem Biennale of Drawing, The Return of Paper (2016), which she curated with Sally Haftel-Naveh. Alongside her curatorial work, she was actively involved in shaping cultural and artistic policy in Israel, among other roles as a member of the Museums Council, the Visual Arts Section of the Israeli Council for Culture and Art, and the Tel Aviv–Jaffa Municipality Sculpture Committee. In 2008, she received the Curatorship Award from the Ministry of Culture.

For the Center for Contemporary Art, Edna was much more than an esteemed curator. She was a partner in its journey, always supporting, guiding, accompanying, and advising, with generosity and endless dedication. Dedicating the festival to her memory expresses love and appreciation for many years of partnership, and for her deep belief in art and the people who create it.