Axel Ewald - recent projects, discoveries & reflections

A Space for Bees

-  Inauguration of the first Bio-Dynamic Beehive Project in Israel

On coming back to Israel after my stay in Oxford I made some surprising and heart-warming discoveries. Meeting the farmers who are running the 'Gan Habeit' organic vegetable garden, I learned about some developments which had occured in surprising parallel to the things I had met during my studies and which I was hoping to further in Israel:

• the farmers more and more see their vegetable garden as a community enterprise and are very keen to cooperate on the development of artistic / environmental / social initiatives
• the farmers teamed up with Yossi Aud who proposed to inaugurate the first Bio-Dynamic educational beehive project on the lands of 'Gan Habeit'. This is seen as a small first step towards dealing with the worldwide beehive crisis (1)
• this beehive project is a joint project with the newly-founded Initiative for Social Three-folding in Israel (2)

I was thrilled to hear about these developments and offered my cooperation. After meeting with Yossi we agreed that I shall take responsibility for the artistic shaping of the landscape setting for beehive project and also make a contribution to the inauguration ceremony.

The Galilee landscape chosen as the setting for the Beehive project

In March 2014 a group of volunteers from the Harduf community prepared under my guidance prepared the site which was chosen as the germinal point for the beehive community. An existing heap of field stones was utilized to create a simple sculptural gesture as a focus point for the first group of beehives.

Soon after the first 8 beehives arrived and were placed around the sculpture. The project will eventually comprise up to 200 beehives, providing an economic basis for this three-folding project.

The first beehives in situ

the inauguration ceremony of the beehive project, photo by Nelly Gluzman

wiggle-dance of the worker bee

For the inauguration ceremony on March 1st I prepared a social sculpture practice which was based on the 'waggle-dance' of the bees. On coming back from a promising source of nectar in the environment a worker bee performs a kind of dance on the honeycombs, following a distinct choreography. The bee repeatedly follows a figure-of-eight pattern with a straight middle section during which she waggles her tail section. This central part conveys the direction of the food-source relative to the direction of the sun.

The occasion which was attended by some 80 people, including many families with small children, was opened by singing and some introductory words by Yossi, by beekeeper Hilmar Conman and Yuval Elad who represented the Social Threefolding Initiative. Then I introduced the Social Sculpture practice and its relationship to the bee community. Participants were asked to break up into small groups, look for a beautiful spot in the 'bees garden', closely observe the place and share impressions.  Each group then had perform three tasks:

• to choose one sentence which summarizes the groups impression of the place and share it with the community
• to bring back a small quantity of one representative natural material from the place and place this in one of the 'honeycombs' which another group had prepared next to the beehives
• to perform a group 'waggle dance' informing the community of where the group's place is situated 

the 'honeycombs' are gradually getting filled
with special materials from the environment
photo: Nelly Gluzman

one group performs the 'waggle-dance'

This was followed by a communal meal and planting of fruit trees.

planting of fruit trees

The following video clip summarizes the event:

(1) For further information about the beehive crisis and how it is related to the prevailing scientific consciousness, see the excellent book:  Kornberger, H. (2012). Global Hive, Bee Crisis and Compassionate Ecology.  Hamilton Hill: Integral Arts Press. For more information about Bio-Dynamic beekeeping in Israel see Yossi Aud's facebook page 'BioBees'.

(2) The idea of Social Threefolding was introduced by Rudolf Steiner after the first world war. It promotes a separation of the three spheres of social life: the economic, social/legal and spiritual sphere. For more information: Steiner, Rudolf (1996) Threefold the Social Order, New Economy Publications / Rudolf Steiner Archive Series. For information about the Social Threefolding Initiative in Israel see the facebook group 'המשולש החברתי' (in Hebrew)