Existing comment:
Afterthought or No Escape from the Past Series
The last three works in the exhibition are by Roi Kuper, Gilad Ratman, and Michal Baror. Kuper's No Escape from the Past Series shows the beautiful, sunny Mediterranean, but not as an optimistic image. Rather, it closes in on the viewer. It does not offer its horizon as expanding distance but announces itself as a barrier. A "No Exit" sign.
Ratman's two-channel work shows a group of individuals drowning in a swamp. Members of this community perform full, vertical submergence in mud pits to the point of disappearance. This disturbing, suffocating happening portrays drowning. Baror's is the only work on loan here, and the only work that includes the Arab voice. It is focused on the marshes that were drained by early Zionists as part of the "conquering the land" movement. In Smaller Place, Baror converses with Muhammad Ammash, a historian and native of Jisr a-Zarqa, Israel. Ammash recounts the history of the village's residents, members of the Arab al-Ghawarneh community, who lived beside the Kabara Marsh and drew their livelihood from it for 600 years. |