In a thrumming beat, in rhyme and in no hierarchical order, a series of associations unfolds, including the assassination of PM Rabin, the Katzav affair, the Holocaust, and the military operation “Cast Lead”. These associations are flung out in verbal freestyle rap contests among young people from various towns in Israel. Freestyle rap is based on improvisation accompanied by rhythm and voice, and with no obligation to deal in any specific content. The point is to prove verbal versatility. During the contests, the participants turn their immediate environment into a fertile ground for images, metaphors, and bottom lines, all used for a type of bragging and inflation of the self esteem which is typical of the genre. Rinat Kotler’s work “Explosive Flow” follows freestyle rap contests taking place in various towns around Israel, examining how these may present a social-cultural agenda and redefine affinities between language, voice, power, and meaning-creating processes. The work follows the way in which personal and performed spontaneity unveil fixed notions of discrimination, and suggests that dealing in unusual methods of using voice and sound entails an element of release. Curator: Maayan Amir
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