Installation Zero is the final project of my first year at Bezalel (MFA). Having emigrated to Israel shortly before, I automatically – and unconsciously – worked on ways to inscribe myself in the space based on my new location. I was quite obsessed with my ‘quest for a home’. And I found some comfort in the writings of John Berger, who spoke of “home” as a moving and dynamic point, from which all can emerge, influence and return. It guided my moves to build Installation Zero as a question and a possibility, not an answer.
I decided to rethink the lines, angles and perspectives of the room; adjusting, sometimes modifying the measurements and questioning their function in their interaction with one another. The walls continue in the floor that can now open a dialogue with the ceiling. My idea was to give the impression of a small but drastic switch of angle, which would operate like a Photoshop filter, changing the different layers of the space.
Among the manipulations on the space, I embedded a cube of plaster in the corner which changed the lines of the studio. I painted some of the floor white, as if the wall was prolongated which emphasized and challenged the viewer’s sense of distance and depth.
In addition, I created a light installation which plunged the room into darkness every one minute for ten seconds. These seconds in the dark forced the viewers to re-adapt their eyes to the extreme white light reflection that came after – leaving them with an impression of instability.
I analyzed my own gestures and behaviours during the process of building the installation, which gave me the idea to subtly impose the same experience to the visitor. Alone, she or he was asked to close the door behind and to experience the feeling of walking into a ‘known’ space (a room) whose perspectives and points of reference had been shifted, leaving them with the sensation that space is doubt*.
* George Perec “Espèces d’espaces” Paris, Galilée, 1974 (trans: “Species of Spaces and Other Pieces”)
++ Catalogue of the exhibition and process are available here
++ Exhibition photos by MTG, portrait by Ariel Reichman, Tel Aviv, 2013
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