Radio Papesse

"There is a project by the Israeli state to make life intolerable for the Palestinians remaining in the Jordan valley, the West Bank, for the purposes of de-facto annexation of this land and its resources." 

Produced by Meira Asher for Radiokunst-Kunstradio ORF Vienna, as part of the program "from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea: a Soundscape of an Occupation 2018", North Jordan Valley 2018 is the winner of the 3rd edition of Suden Radio.

Always disturbing and uncompromising, Meira Asher is a sound art activist whose work is firmly devoted to the present day Palestinian and Israeli conflict. North Jordan Valley 2018 is a well-orchestrated piece where the sonic layering manages to reflect the geopolitical reality of the region and a masterly stereophony is an effective sonic transcription of the Israel and Palestine binomy.  

Despite the repeated murmurings of a judicial ruling that makes the space uninhabitable, Asher resist this dynamic by making use of the porous nature of the spoken word. The repeated evacuation order in English collapses into meaninglessness through repetition and sonic confusion, while other languages find a way to inhabit a space of extra-linguistic power.

Graduate of the California Institute of the Arts (BFA, percussion) and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (MA, Sonology), the research areas of composer- performer Meira Asher include Social Documentary and the Amplification of the Human Body.
When living in The Netherlands she was co-founder of the bodylab art foundation in The Hague (2001-2011). Currently she is a lecturer at Haifa University’s Art School, and curator-presenter of the independent Radioart program radioart106.