^{Image courtesy of Benjamin Shasha}

Interview: Benjamin Shasha and Sharon Hilleli-Assa

Luca Curci talks with artists Benjamin Shasha and Sharon Hilleli-Assa during BODIES+CITIES SKIN exhibition in Venice on May 2016. Cinematographer and standalone creator, Benjamin Shasha has worked as A.C. in feature films and commercial. He produced and photographed two standalone short movies, one of them with Sharon Hilleli-Assa.  Dance artist, performer and Head of the Dance Department Ramot-Yam (Israel), she has created many works for stage and videodance in collaboration with artists from Israel, NY and Europe. She was among the founders of Oktet-Improvisation Dance Group as well as a professional dancer of Tamar company in Jerusalem. 

 

^{Image courtesy of Benjamin Shasha}

 

Luca Curci – We were attracted by your last artistic production, has the artwork presented been created for the festival or is it a part of preexisting work?

Ben and Sharon – The two pieces that we presented at the BODIES+CITIES SKIN festival are part of a short film named “Interbeing”. The film consists of 4 chapters. Each chapter deals with the “sphere of the between us”, in a different artistic way. Each chapter is a piece by itself as the two that are presented in BODIES+CITIES SKIN.

L.C. – Please tell me what are you working at right now…

B. – These days we are working on the last version of the short film “Interbeing”.

S. – In addition to that, we are planning a new video-art that will involve typography, words and movements, a collaboration with a graphic designer.

 

^{Image courtesy of Benjamin Shasha}

 

L.C. – What is art for you?

B. – Art for me is the process of refining everything you do.

S. – Art for me is bringing a personal interpretation to ideas or phenomena, refining their shapes and contents. It is also another way for communication and reflection between people, the environment and among themselves. I like to quote the phrase of the poem “The art of poetry” by Jorge Borges that gives the art an image of a mirror. “Sometimes in the evening there’s a face that sees us from the deeps of a mirror. Art must be that sort of mirror, disclosing to each of us his face”.

L.C. – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?

B. – I’m a freelance cinematographer. I’m working in the film & commercial industry. The thing that has influenced me the most is the work as A.C. in Feature Film with a very experienced Director of Photography (D.o.p).

S. – Dance for me is a way to translate my current thoughts into a physical dimension. While writing my thesis, I discovered a way to teach and to move with full involvement, in a way that sensations, thoughts and feelings become one unit in any action of the body. Seek to move from the deepest parts of ourselves. It has influenced my work as an endless journey. In this creation (Interbeing) I was inspired by the dialogue philosophy of Martin Buber: “I and you” and I intuitively translated it into the dance.

 

^{Image courtesy of Benjamin Shasha}

 

L.C. – What role does the artist have in society? And the art?

B. – To expose people and society to different ways of thinking.

S. – To arouse sensations, feelings and a variety of ways of thinking, to bring aesthetic to life. Art should awake you from your daily pathway.

L.C. – What is your creative process like?

B. – Thinking of an idea and finding the way to make it happen. In this project we did everything by ourselves because it was without any support that makes you do all.

S. – First to” fall in love”. To be touched by an idea, people, images… then to work physically, to be deeply involved in the process. Dicovering nodes which allow freedom and clarity.

 

^{Image courtesy of Benjamin Shasha}

 
L.C. – What do you think about It’s LIQUID Platform?

B. – I think it’s nice that you combine different kinds of art in one place.

S. – I love collaboration. It opens the mind to be exposed to a diversity of ideas.

L.C. – What do you think about our organization of the event?

B. and S. – We think that the organization is very good even though we haven’t attended the festival. All the communication went very well between us.

 ^{Image courtesy of Benjamin Shasha}

 

^{Image courtesy of Benjamin Shasha}

 

^{Image courtesy of Benjamin Shasha}

 

^{Image courtesy of Benjamin Shasha}

 

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