Setting | A Performance In A Bookstore 

performance, 20 minutes
wood, brass, ceramics, PVC pipes, challah and fabric
Accent Sisters, March 30 2025
garments, metal, performer and choreographer: Ye'ela Wilschanski
curator: Qianfan Gu
photos: Elisheva Gavra

full performance


Inspired by gestures of setting a table.

Shlissel Challah (key bread) is a minhag (custom) in some Ashkenazi communities as a segula (talisman / literally feminine purple) to open abundance. Once a year, on the Shabbat after Passover (after not eating bread for a week), the Challah is braided in the shape of a key, or a key is inserted into the dough.

During the piece, I recite parts of Asader Le-Seudata Be-Ztafra De-Shabata (I will prepare the festive meal on Sabbath morning) is a piyut (Jewish liturgical poem) written in Aramaic by Ha'Ari in the 16th century, Safed. The content of the piyut is about setting the intention of how the meal will unfold.


Setting | A Performance in a Bookstore responds to the theme of “mother tongue” explored in 39 Footnotes, a group exhibition co-curated by Qianfan Gu, Jiaoyang Li, and Na Zhong at Accent Sisters’ new Union Square location in New York City. The performance serves as the show’s closing ceremony.