The work Sabbath 2008 documents the closing down of the ultra-orthodox neighborhoods in and around Jerusalem on the eve of the Sabbath. In most cases, public access to these neighborhoods is blocked by means of temporary barriers, which stay put for 24 hours – thus creating an artificial border between these areas and the rest of the city. The barriers are put in place by neighborhood residents, with the approval and support of the Jerusalem municipality and the police. Once the barriers are erected, no cars are allowed into Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox neighborhoods. The city is thus topologically transformed into two cities – with and without cars. Building on this ritual, Sabbath 2008 is a photographic ritual that can only be performed at a designated time and in designated places. Although the value of these somewhat rickety barriers may appear above all symbolic, their presence is a source of friction and conflict; they delineate a clear-cut boundary between the sacred and the mundane.
“Sabbath 2008” on view currently at Tel-Aviv Museum of Art- as part of the Solo Project MOUNTIAN :consisting of Sabbath 2008, kept Alive and Kept Alive Portraits as part of The Nathan Gottesdiener Foundation Israeli Art Prize’s finalists March-June 2010. Photo by Elad Sarig
Images from the work (click on images below to enlarge):
