On the 21st of this month, an exhibition on the life, death and character of Mike Burnett, the international Haifa legend, will open at the Haifa City Museum. The exhibition will feature original items collected and preserved throughout the singer’s life, including awards and gold records, rare videos from his performances, photos from family albums, letters and more. The collection was donated to the museum by Brent’s brother, Moshe Brand, and his daughter Yona
Posted on: 1.5.22 16:36
“Until the Brides of the Body” – an exhibition about the life and character of the international legend, Haifa resident Mike Burnett, will open on May 21 at the Haifa City Museum. The exhibition was born following a donation from a rare collection by Zvika Brand, Mike’s younger brother, and his daughter Jonah Brand. The collection includes original items preserved and collected during Brent’s life and after his death and contains awards and gold records, rare videos from his performances, rare photos from family albums, clothing details, fan albums, covers of local and international magazines dedicated to him, collectibles, souvenirs, letters and letters. Of Brent and more.
The exhibition, which covers all the spaces of the city museum, sheds light on Brent’s complex character and tumultuous life, along with Israel’s other story in those years and the Israeli music and entertainment hierarchy of those decades.
The “Sky Artists” Band, Dan Carmel Hotel in Haifa, 1967-1965 (Photo: Brand Family Collection, Haifa City Museum)
Mike Burnett is still considered one of the most successful Israeli singers of all time and an Israeli-international legend. During his short international career he has released dozens of hits that have conquered the tops of the charts, starred on the covers of hundreds of magazines and performed in front of tens of thousands of fans. About four decades after his tragic death, his records are still sold in many copies in Israel and abroad. In the local context, it can be said that Brent has earned a place in the pantheon of the Israeli music world.
The exhibition examines the collection and the wonderful life story of Mike Burnett – Moshe Brand originally – across the development of local culture and music in the country and in relation to the founding events that took place in the State of Israel. The exhibition reviews the course of his life: his childhood years and his significant stops, a second bullet for Holocaust survivors, in Haifa, the city where he grew up in the 1950s; The development of his musical career in Israel and his performances with various bands in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Eilat in the 1960s, while juggling between Italian and French ballads and American pop hits and British rock ‘n’ roll, with Hebrew music dominating the music style of singers from military bands; Becoming a superstar in the 1970s, which was a resounding success in France and his albums sold millions of copies, before the world became a global village, when traveling abroad was not a matter of course, but the desire of an Israeli citizen, not to mention the desire of every Israeli artist. And the last stages of his life – until April 25, 1975, the day he ended his life in Paris at the age of 28.
Moshe Brand (Mike Burnett) in the play “Antigone” at the Haifa Theater, 1965 (Photo: Brand Family Collection, Haifa City Museum)
Alongside the historical items, the exhibition features works of art, illustrations and posters created especially by the artists Ovadia Benisho, Dave Yaakov, Fogi Naim-Malul and Tal Fogel; Rare videos of Brent’s performances in Israel and Europe; Interviews with Noam Semel, Mike’s artistic director and first organizer in Israel, Ariel Zilber, who was part of Brent’s warm-up band in Paris, and Liora Ofer, who was part of Brent’s backing band during his performances in Israel. These interviews, which were held especially for the exhibition, are presented alongside excerpts from the film “Les Moa Tama” by director Erez Laufer.
In this spirit, the exhibition examines the entry of a private collection into the spaces of the public museum and the way in which a personal life story can be interpreted from a number of different points of view. The works of art and historical items alongside the details of collectibles, souvenirs and merchandise, created both during Brent’s life and after his death, together create colorful and enchanting spaces. Alongside the nostalgic and historical contexts, new meanings are created as a result of putting the objects together that touch on dramatic issues in Mike Burnett’s life.
The story of Mike Burnett’s life is unique, impressive and tragic, along with it, it is also the other story of Israel in those years, as well as the story of the second generation of Holocaust refugees, the cultural closure and the Israeli music and entertainment hierarchy of those decades.
Yoav Kutner, broadcaster, the mythological music editor and winner of the ACUM Prize, the exhibition’s scientific advisor, places for the first time the story of Mike Burnett in the world of music and entertainment in Israel in those years alongside global trends in music, society and culture in general: Kutner: Glow and sparkle ‘like in America’. The appearance, the attire, the artistic conduct, the attitude towards the media and the audience, and above all – the voice, through the singing and the songs he sings. He grew up and was shaped in an atmosphere where the great singers, singers and ensembles in Hebrew song were not ‘stars’. They were part of the guys, did not stand out, did not ‘show off’, did not dress up and adopt images to become others when they took the stage. The biblical phrase ‘and austerity’ was not only the slogan of the real school in Haifa but a guideline for the Israeli mainstream, and not only in the field of culture and entertainment but in life itself.
Wall clock. Mike Burnett with Gold Records, 1972 (Photo: Brand Family Collection, Haifa City Museum)
“Mike Burnett wanted to be different – not to be part of Israeli popular culture, not to belong to the ‘good kids’ group that goes to youth movements and dances folk dances. He was drawn to music outside the dominant mainstream, to the new, bold, different. For many years, to plant a foreigner in Israeli culture. “
Curators of the exhibition: Inbar Dror Lex and Yifat Ashkenazi, Exhibition consultant: Yoav Kutner. Opening: May 21, 2022. Closing: May 30.
City Museum, 11 Ben Gurion Boulevard, German Colony, Haifa. Phone: 04-9115888. Website >>>