Photo by Alicja Rogalska
A3 Poster for performance
A3 poster for performance
Photo by Alicja Rogalska
"Delilah de Dashing Date" is the stage name of a boycotted Israeli medjool date dedicated to raising awareness of the dangers of cultural boycotts. In her debut performance at Goldsmiths College in March 2011 she tries to pass herself off as a Turkish date in order to be socially accepted but breaks down midway and confesses her Israeli origins, hoping to reach the hearts of the art students by telling her individual story. She addresses her fellow students in Arabic and Hebrew, assuming they would not be able to tell the difference. At the conclusion of her monologue she belly-dances for the audience, in what becomes a jumbled frenzy of Middle-Eastern and Hassidic moves to the broken sounds of Oum Kalthoum, and offers them boycotted Israeli medjool dates as a gesture of goodwill.
Her second performance, a week later, is boycotted by many students.
SAVE THE DATE is an attempt to shake existing prejudices by confronting audiences with individuals directly affected by cultural boycotting and thereby questioning this strategy as an ethical means of protest. The boycotting of food is used as a metaphor or even a precursor of the exclusion of individuals from artistic and intellectual circles. Through an absurd gesture the audience is asked to critically examine decision-making and opinion-forming processes and how they are affected by cultural and political trends.
Documentation of Delilah's debut performance was exhibited in Conversation Pieces: Scenes of Unfashionable Life 2011 and she was also flown to Israel for a guest appearance at The Museum of Art, Ein Harod in January 2012, where she now permanently resides.