One of the first pavilions that resonated with me was the Israeli pavilion which belongs to Sigalit Landau, for her exhibition- ‘One Man’s Floor is Another Man’s Feelings’.
It consists of four video installations and a pipe dug into the wall of the pavilion, which draws water from the earth; various pipes are installed with gauges and valves as you walk up into the gallery.
Background on the artist-
Sigalit Landau's committed and poetic approach turns personal questions, be they philosophical or political, into universal quests. To achieve this, she often combines performance, installations, objects and films. Her work crystallizes a collection of ideas through a single image, object or action, rendering them symbolic as in her "Barbed Hula" video, where she appears on a beach in Israel, naked, performing a hula hoop dance using a ring of barbed wire.
She has been, for several years, involved in an in-depth relationship with the lowest place on earth, the Dead Sea (456m below sea level). She reacts, as an artist, to the terrible peculiarities of this site; this damaged place, which holds within it the region's geopolitical traumas, and is the scene of an ongoing ecological disaster. This is the place she has chosen to stage her unique oeuvre, inspired by her continual attraction to embody the ritual linked to memory. This is where she orchestrates her exploration of the archaeology of the present.
The overarching themes of Sigalit Landau's current exhibition will be water, soil, and salt. Through these basic elements the artist will explore issues of existence and survival: the interdependence of people and nations in her native region, and their common interlinked future.
Landau, known for her complex site-specific installations (such as those presented at the Tel Aviv Museum and KW Berlin) is planning a new, poetic and multi-layered installation for the Israeli Pavilion in Venice. The new exhibition is yet another step in Landau's ongoing exploration of the tensions between public and personal issues and space.
Her videos, which hover between politics and poetry land an aftertaste of poignancy. The beauty of her work lies in the simplicity of its execution- for instance two salt laden boots are placed above a lake of ice, as the ice melts the boots gradually sink into the lake. The inevitable collapse of the boots heightens its sadness. Behind which you hear the wails of sirens, from which three naked figures emerge from the waves to claw at the beach making deep imprints into the sand as they move backwards into the sea. The title being- Mermaids (Erasing the Border of Azkelon) maps the large wall with its haunting song. Beneath which is a round conference table scattered with laptops as each screen shows scenes from a movie as a girl hiding beneath the table ties each of the debater’s shoelaces together.
Catching snippets of their debate about a construction of a salt bridge between the Dead Sea that will connect Israel and Jordan, you watch as each debater walks away from the table leaving behind their shoes. Leaving the pavilion there are letters from the government mounted on the wall noting their gratitude for the effort the artist has shown towards the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, there is also a short video of her sketches in installing the salt bridge; a circle of shoes then greets you as you walk out.
The artist lends her perspective as the girl beneath the table, playing a game with the shoes as the debaters above play the country game. To bridge a balance between the two worlds, one of innocent child idealism, as well as the calculated work of policy makers, the artist attempts to bridge these opposites and to create a haven of hope.
And a Tate video interview of the artist and her work:
Cheers
Stephanie
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