Internationalism and Insularity in Tel-Aviv

This year, city of Tel Aviv-Yafo celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding and Art TLV, the city's new art biennial, is one of the central attractions. Scheduled between the Athens and Istanbul biennials, the mission of the Israeli biennial clearly to establish Tel Aviv in a Mediterranean cultural triangle, and invite international visitors to sneak in a stop while they're conveniently in the region. The biennial's main event, "Circus Universalis Ltd.," is named for the fictional big-top from Spotted Leopard, a play by Israeli naturalist writer and translator Yaakov Shabtai (1934-1981). The play tells the story of a European immigrant who attempts to open the first Hebrew circus in Palestine, but whose leopard cannot "lose its spots" so easily. It's a metaphor for the founding of a thoroughly Western-looking Tel Aviv, and a Biennial that as informed by the international circuit as Israel's political insularity.
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