Artist: Omer Ben-Zvi
Earthly and Heavenly Jerusalem / Lea Goldberg
Break your bread in two,
Earthly and heavenly Jerusalem,
thistle jewels on your hills,
and your sun among the thorns.
Hundreds of deaths but your mercy!
Break your bread in two:
one for the fowl of the air
The second
to tread upon
at the crossroads.
Jerusalem, due to its sanctity and significance, has been a lodestone for believers and pilgrims throughout history. The city and its landscapes were photographed almost from the moment the medium was invented in the mid-19th century. Over the years, the documentation was primarily of sites of religious and historical meaning. In the series on view, the photographs focus on sites in which the stratified Jerusalem soil was deeply dug or currently being excavated: pits, archaeological excavations, infrastructure construction sites, and burial sites.
The series is based on a three-dimensional model generated by Ofek Aerial Photography. This model is a remarkable example of aerial and satellite imaging technologies that over the past decade have become accessible to the public and available online through computers and smartphones. The usage of this data on a daily basis enables a new perspective and reveals things that are hidden from the pedestrian view on the street.
Nevertheless, watching Jerusalem virtually from a distance does not always show its complexity as the stratified soil conceals a great deal of information. Processes of digging and photographing can create, as well as erase, knowledge and memory – the upper layers of the ground, and what it carries, are vacated, exposing old layers, which are revalidated anew. This combination of various layers of time creates a new hierarchy as some layers are conserved while others are covered or removed. Thus, digging and delving deeper into the ground are actions that strengthen the grip and ownership of the land, while reaffirming historical and national narratives. Today, throughout the city and its outskirts, monumental construction and infrastructure projects are underway. In the Jerusalem context, in which past-present-and-future are constantly blending, one can think of these constructions as the archaeological sites that will narrate the story of our times in the distant future.
