Performance “The Sin of Pride / Hubris” | Israel / Belgium
Creator: Asher Lev
Direction, choreography: Asher Lev
Dramaturgy: Robert Steijn
Music: Mozart sonata in C K.545 played by Mitsuko Uchida, Mozart Fantasia No. 3 in D minor, K. 397 played by Fazıl Say and the Orphic Hymns
Lighting: Xavier Lucy
Sound design: Asher Lev
Cast: Asher Lev
Thanks to: Robert Steijn, Andrèe Chapatte, Nathanial Moore, Irina Lavrinovic, Benjamin Vandewalle, Orion Maxted and Xavier Lucy for their insightful perspectives
Production: The Dionysian POrtal
Premiere: January 30, 2025
Date: August 23, 2026 | Sunday
Time: 8 pm
Place: Room C_101, Art Factory in Łódź, 3 Tymienieckiego Street
Tickets: 25 PLN - industry | 40 PLN - early bird | 50 PLN - reduced | 70 PLN - regular
Early bird tickets: on sale from June 23, 2026 until July 7, 2026 or until they are sold out | via biletomat.pl portal | online payment
Regular and reduced tickets: on sale from July 8, 2026 until they are sold out | via biletomat.pl portal | online payment
Industry tickets: for cultural workers, on sale one hour before the selected event, at the Festival Office | cash or contactless card payment | booking: from June 23, 2026, by mail:biuro@retroperspektywy.com
Duration: 60 minutes
Age restrictions: 16+
Language: English
Content warning: Themes relating to religion and faith, family conflicts, social exclusion, psychological distress, mourning, war, violence, the symbolism of the crucifixion, controversies surrounding art and creative freedom, loud music, blood, and nudity
After the performance, around 9 pm, we invite the viewers to a meeting and discussion with the artists.
The discussion will take place in the Glass Hall of the Art Factory in Łódź.
The discussion will be led by Tomasz Domagała.
The discussion will be held in English and translated into Polish.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFORMANCE
My name is Asher Lev and I am an Israeli and Jewish artist who emigrated from Israel to Belgium, Brussels, more than ten years ago. I am married, a father of two boys and a son of a ninety year old holocaust survivor from Theresienstadt (CZ) and Zionist, Gidon Lev.
In lieu of the ongoing violent occupation of the Palestinian territories, the apartheid inside of Israel and the war that Israel has been raging in and on Gaza for a long time now, and especially in the last year and a half, I created a solo performance called “The Sin of Pride (Hubris / חטא היוהרה)”. This solo show is my way of performing a kind of needed “cultural shadow work” on my Israeli and Jewish identities. It is a purging of propaganda and a prayer for peace in the sense that it aims to shine an aesthetic and spiritual perspective upon a horrifying reality of violence.
It focuses on Israeli propaganda and fascism which is of course only one example among other national and global tendencies we are all affected by these days.
My art work exposes the mechanisms of political practices through a performative embodiment of nationalist symbolism(s). It dissolves them through a trance of movement and voice into an absurd and resonating materiality that brings joy and makes people happy at the end of the performance.
My work is not a simple “in your face” representation of a dark reality. It is a performance that opens up a brave space in which we can transform the narrative(s) that are causing us to act out of fear.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTIST
Asher Lev - a Brussels based artist since 2013, born in Canada in 1981, and grown up in Israel. He is a performance maker whose works have toured festivals in Europe, Israel, Canada and USA. As a dancer he worked for Yasmeen Godder (ISR), Örjan Andersson (SE), Edhem Jesenkovic (DK), Ina Christel Johannessen (NO), Yaniv Cohen (NO), Mia Habib (NO), Ohad Naharin and Batsheva Dance Company (ISR), Carte Blanche (NO) among many others. Lev has a BA in Sociology/Anthropology and Islam/Middle Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MA in Choreography from the Amsterdam University of the Arts. He is interested in experimental somatic practices, radical physiologies, process and experiential philosophies. Together with his partners, Irina Lavrinovic, Robert Steijn and Hélène Lacrosse, they are exploring art at the intersection of mythology, community and ecology. The framework for this research, named The Dionysian Portal, supports a deep investment in reclaiming a wild and sacred nature for performance in western culture.
