_______________________ >>

 

Inside a Mamluk vault that was built on the ruins of the square, Shai Ratner fabricates an archeological dig site – a sculptural event composed of "holy" water that erupt from the wall and an enigmatic fossil of two fish, one suspended from the other's mouth. The fossil, a fragment that immortalized a frozen point in time, becomes the beginning of a story that each viewer can complete in his imagination. The suspension of the decisive moment – a fish in another fish's mouth – alludes to an act and its consequences: was the predator able to enjoy its prey before he had met with a similar fate? Is there a greater punishment than the immortalization of a sin?

 

The image of the fish recurs in different shapes and forms in ancient Jewish, Christian and Muslim myths. And so, an age-old fossil discovered in the ground of eastern Jerusalem, in a square built by the Roman Empire, becomes a multicultural relic: Not only does Ratner give a shape to the abstract, he also creates a representation of movement in time, the movement and transformation of a myth transported from one culture to another. The mythological-contemporary mindset that imbues the finding at the archeological dig, gives a physical and material expression to the link between myth, holiness and profanity. The temptation to believe the emanation of holy water as a testament to the presence of fish in the water of Jerusalem collapses when the truth is revealed – the water is nothing but a sewage that spews waste.

 

Myths were invented as a way to account for inexplicable phenomena, and were always supported by faith. Modern anthropology teaches us that myths are needed for human society in the shaping of ethic and national identity, and recount a mystic narrative that provides meaning and a hold on reality. Jerusalem in its essence is based on an internal struggle between revealing and covering, being real and imagined. The lyrical and sculptural presence of the fossil miracle unearthed in a Mamluk vault, casts doubt on the myths that wander the streets of Jerusalem and try to force their way into the present. 

 

Tali Ben Nun

_____________________________________________ >>